New Delhi: The Chinese aggression is aimed at destroying the idea of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a strong leader, said Rahul Gandhi Monday, hitting out at the central government’s strategy in dealing with the border standoff in Ladakh.
“They (Chinese) understand that in order for Narendra Modi to be an effective politician, in order for him to survive as a politician, he has to protect the idea of chhappan (56) inch, and this is the real idea the Chinese are attacking,” he said.
“They are basically telling Narendra Modi that if you do not do what we say, we will destroy the idea of Narendra Modi as a strong leader,” he said in a video shared on Twitter.
PM fabricated a fake strongman image to come to power. It was his biggest strength.
It is now India’s biggest weakness. pic.twitter.com/ifAplkFpVv
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 20, 2020
The 2.39-minute video was Gandhi’s ‘second episode’, which is part of a new video series he has launched last week on current affairs and history.
Last Monday, Gandhi had tweeted that he will be releasing videos to counter the “hate-filled narrative” spread by the news media. Last Friday, he released the first episode — also on the India-China standoff.
Also read: India now deals with China on ‘more equal terms’ politically, Jaishankar tells Rahul Gandhi
‘Modi succumbing to Chinese strategy’
Gandhi said the Chinese game plan isn’t to merely rake up a border issue, but their idea is to ‘restructure the planet’.
“Chinese don’t do anything without thinking about it strategically. In their mind, they have mapped out the world and they are trying to shape the world. That’s the scale of what they are doing… It is a restructuring of the planet,” Gandhi said.
The former Congress president said that “whether it is Galwan, whether it’s Demchok or whether it is Pangong Lake” — the Chinese intend to tactically improve their position.
Gandhi further alleged that the Chinese issue is ‘designed to put pressure on the Prime Minister of India’.
“Now the question is, how will PM Modi react…Will he take on the challenge and say ‘Absolutely not. I am the Prime Minister of India. I do not care about my image. I’m going to take you on.’ Or will he succumb to them? The worry I have so far is that the Prime Minister has succumbed,” Gandhi said.
He further said that PM Modi is concerned about protecting his image, and not fighting the Chinese.
“The worry I have is, the Chinese are sitting in our territory today and the Prime Minister has said publicly, they are not, which to me tells me that he is worried about his image,” Gandhi said.
At an all-party meeting last month, PM Modi had said that the Chinese didn’t enter the Indian territory.
After the statement became controversial, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued a clarification, calling it a “mischievous interpretation”.
“Prime Minister’s observations that there was no Chinese presence on our side of the LAC pertained to the situation as a consequence of the bravery of our armed forces,” the clarification read.
Also read: Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi, Jaishankar lead Twitter outrage against JNU violence