NEW DELHI: In a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the stand-off in Ladakh is a design by China to attack his image as a “56-inch strongman” and that is “now India’s biggest weakness”.
In the second of his series of short videos on the India-China face-off, Gandhi said the Chinese are trying to put pressure on the PM to act in a way else they will destroy his strongman image and so far, he has been seen as one succumbing to it.
“It is not simply a border issue. It is a border issue designed to put pressure on the prime minister of India. And they are thinking of putting pressure in a very particular way. And what they are doing is that they are attacking his image. The Chinese are basically telling Modi that if he does not do what they say, they will destroy the idea of Mr Narendra Modi as a strong leader,” he said. The former Congress chief said the Chinese understand that for the PM to be an effective politician; to survive as a politician, he has to protect the idea of ‘’chappan inch’’.
‘He’s strong on mudslinging’
BJP chief J P Nadda was quick to hit back, saying the attempts to politicise defence and foreign policy matters showed “one dynasty’s desperation to wash their past sins since 1962 and weaken India”.
He said Gandhi was weak on facts and strong on mudslinging. “Remember 1962, giving away of a UNSC seat, losing lot of land to China in the UPA years, MoU signed with much fanfare in 2008, fund to RGF and more,” tweeted Nadda.