‘Why is Modi silent on China’? Questions Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: With fervent nationalism becoming the flavour of the election season, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Tuesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s patriotic credentials and accused him of not raising the issue of India’s “territorial integrity” during his meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The Congress leader claimed the prime minister “did not utter a word” on the boundary question when he hosted President Xi in his home State Gujarat a few years ago.

“During Xi Jinping’s meeting with Modi in India, the Prime Minister was seen sitting with him over a cup of tea without uttering a single word on the boundary dispute. Even during his (Modi) visit to China he never took up the Doklam issue,” Gandhi told an election rally in the Arunachal Pradesh capital.

India and China are locked in a protracted dispute over Arunachal Pradesh, often resulting in incursions by their respective armies into each other’s territory. “How can he (Modi) claim himself a Desh Bhakt (patriot) when he did not even take up the issue of the country’s territorial integrity? The country doesn’t want such patriots.

“The people of Arunachal Pradesh are more patriotic as they are zealously protecting the country’s territory,” he told the rally. Gandhi said Modi had visited China “without an agenda” on the vexed boundary question.

The Congress president had recently called Modi “weak and scared” of the Chinese president, after Beijing once again blocked a UN resolution to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist.

“Weak Modi is scared of Xi. Not a word comes out of his mouth when China acts against India.

Also read: Arunachal news