External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday came out strongly yet again to hit out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for questioning the Modi Government’s foreign and economic policies saying India’s partnerships with other nations are stronger, the country’s international standing is higher than ever and New Delhi engages Beijing on more equal terms politically.
In a series of tweets, while Jaishankar came out with an elaborate response to Rahul’s attack, he also advised the former Congress chief to “ask the analysts”.
A month ago, Jaishankar had asked Rahul to “get the facts straight” on the fact that all troops on border duty always carry arms, especially when leaving post. “Those at Galwan on 15 June did so,” Jaishankar had tweeted after Rahul had criticised the Government asking who had ordered unarmed soldiers to go to the stand-off point.
On Rahul’s latest attack, Jaishankar said India’s major partnerships with United States, Russia, Japan, Europe, etc. are stronger and international standing higher. “India engages China on more equal terms politically,” he said.
Jaishankar said India now speaks her mind more openly on contentious issues like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that violates Indian sovereignty, on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), on maritime
disputes in the South China Sea, and on United Nations-sanctioned
terrorists who are harboured in Pakistan. “Ask the media,” he suggested Gandhi validate.
He said the Government has addressed the border infrastructure imbalance legacy. “Compare 2014-20 with 2008-14. Budget up by 280%, road building by 32%, bridges by 99% and tunnels by 6 times. Ask the jawans,” wrote Jaishankar.
Jaishankar also pointed out to Rahul ‘skipping’ the topic of Pakistan and said Islamabad surely notes the difference between Balakot and
Uri (the air and surgical strikes against terror launch pads in POK) on the one hand and Sharm-el-Sheikh, Havana and 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks on the other.
Further, he listed out India’s the Hambantota Port agreement between Sri Lanka and China that was concluded in 2008 (under UPA). Colombo couldn’t pay back the debt owed to Beijing and had to lease out the strategically located port to China for 99 years. “Ask those who dealt with it,” said Jaishankar even as he listed a series of shortcomings of the erstwhile
Congress-led UPA Government on dealing with Maldives, Afghanistan and Bhutan.