BJP hits out at Rahul, says you are 'most irresponsible politician'

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra has hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who questioned PM Modi on the killings of 20 Indian soldiers in Ladakh. He has said Rahul is acting in an immature and irresponsible manner by attacking PM with his tweets when the government has already called an all-party meeting on Friday, over the border row.

New Delhi: Terming Rahul Gandhi as the "most irresponsible politician" India has seen, the BJP on Thursday asked the Congress leader to "deescalate" his politics of "misinformation and propaganda" in targeting the government over the death of Indian soldiers in a clash with Chinese troops in Ladakh.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters that Gandhi was acting in an immature and irresponsible manner by attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his tweets when the government has already called an all-party meeting on Friday, over the border row.

Gandhi on Thursday questioned why Indian soldiers were sent "unarmed to martyrdom" in Ladakh and who is responsible for sending them towards danger. He had earlier attacked Modi, asking why he was "hiding".

Hitting back, Patra said Gandhi wants to show that India left its unarmed soldiers to die and then cited, a 1996-agreement between China and India, when Deve Gowda was prime minister, that prohibited armies of both countries from using any weapon within two kilometeres of their border.

"You are the most irresponsible politician India has yet seen. Read, understand and then speak. Just don't rant against your country. Don't make such unfounded and misleading claims against your own country to launch your politics," he said.

Patra claimed that the country will 'fight all three Cs" together and emerge victorious if the Congress stands against its sentiments.

The three Cs were the coronavirus, the stand off with China and the Congress, he claimed.

The prime minister is not merely a person or is of a party but he represents the entire country, Patra said, attacking Gandhi for his "immature and irresponsible" tweets.

Modi has asserted that there will be no compromise with Indian territorial integrity, the BJP spokesperson noted, and said Gandhi does not trust the Prime Minister, Defence Minister or even Army chief, who had recently commented over the issue.

"You need to deescalate this politics of misinformation and propaganda. India will not forgive Rahul Gandhi for this sort of escalation," he said.

Gandhi had also cast doubts on surgical strikes and air strikes against terrorists inside Pakistan, Patra alleged.

He also referred to a 2008 MoU between the Congress and the ruling Communist party of China and asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul to explain its details.

Rahul Gandhi, a Congress general secretary then, and Xi Jinping, the current Chinese president who was then a general secretary of his party, had signed it, Patra said.

The MoU, he claimed reading from news reports, was aimed at building relationship between the Congress, the "Nehru Gandhi family in particular", and China's ruling party.

During the 2017 Doklam stand off between India and China, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had a dinner meeting with the Chinese envoy, Patra said, noting that the Congress had first denied it before acknowledging it.

Rahul Gandhi's fresh attack on the government came a day after he asked Defence Minister Rajnath Singh why he did not name China in his tweet and why it took him two days to condole the deaths of 20 Army personnel.

"China has committed a big crime by killing unarmed Indian soldiers. I want to ask who sent these bravehearts towards danger without arms and why. Who is responsible for this," he asked in a video message.

PTI