HUBBALLI: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Friday termed Rahul Gandhi’s barb at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over China as “childish and immature” and said the Congress leader keeps making such “obnoxious” statements.
Modi is in the US for a Quad summit, a one-on-one meeting with US President Joe Biden and to address the UN General Assembly. The Congress MP tweeted on Friday mocking Modi, saying, “Mr 56 is scared of China”. Terming Rahul a “non-serious and part-time politician”, Joshi said, “Sometimes when there is a serious crisis, he goes out of the country and never has any idea of what is happening in the country. He should not be taken seriously”.
On Sino-Indian relation, Joshi said, “The preparedness of Indian forces in handling the recent Chinese incursion has been widely appreciated by defence analysts. For the first time, India is emerging as a global leader and every Indian should be proud.”
On TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s comment about the collapse of BJP in West Bengal, he said, “We had three MLAs, now we have 77. Banerjee should understand what has happened to opposition parties from Uttar Pradesh to Tripura. Under Modi, the party is growing and the people are aware of the good deeds of the NDA government. The polls are still three years away.”
Reacting to Congress MLAs not attending Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s address to both Houses of the legislature on Friday, Joshi said opposition party leaders should have spoken to the Assembly Speaker about their reservations and attended the address. “The Speaker does not belong to any single political party. Congress leaders should stop politicising every issue,” he added.