Lucknow: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday. Thakur, while addressing a press conference in the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in Lucknow, said that Gandhi's statements with regard to Kashmir matched those coming from Pakistan.
"Why does Rahul Gandhi's language matches that of Pakistan on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir whenever he speaks on this issue? Pakistan has always liked his language and almost the same statement is coming out of Pakistan as well," Thakur said.
The minister's comments come in the backdrop of Gandhi fiercely criticizing the Centre over its defence policy, the Kashmir situation as well as Indo-China relations.
"Rahul Gandhi should tell us if he did not want the removal of Article 370. In the last 70 years, there has been continuous genocide in Kashmir by Pakistan. The blood of millions of people has spilled. The situation is improving, but Gandhi perhaps does not like it. That is why he is speaking the language of Pakistan", Thakur further noted.
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Bashing the Centre, Gandhi had, on Wednesday, said the Modi administration's foreign policy brought Pakistan and China together: "single biggest crime that you could commit against the people of India", the Congress leader had noted.
Rahul was also slammed by Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, who said it was normal for the Congress leader to see two Indias, the Gandhi himself had grown up in two cultures.
"It is natural for Rahul Gandhi to see two Indias inside one India, because he has been brought up in two cultures: mother Sonia Gandhi was Italian and father Rajiv Gandhi was from India. Growing up in the culture of Italy and India, he has always had a conflict in his thinking", Vij said, directing his comment towards the Italian heritage of Sonia Gandhi.
"Rahul Gandhi alleged in Lok Sabha that it is this Government that brought Pakistan and China together. Perhaps, some history lessons are in order", Jaishankar tweeted out, outlining thereafter sequence of events since 1963, shortly after the Indo-China war.
Gandhi's remark that BJP's policies have brought 'China and Pakistan together' saw India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar saying that the former needed to brush up on his history lessons.
