NEW DELHI: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said in LS Monday that foreign minister S Jaishankar went to Washington to lobby for an invite for PM Modi for the US president’s inauguration, a remark that drew protests from the treasury benches and was swiftly refuted by Jaishankar.
“We will not send him (FM) three or four times, please invite our PM. Because if we had a production system and we were working on these technologies, the US president would come here and invite the PM,” Rahul said.
Accusing Rahul of lying, Jaishankar said he went to meet the secretary of state and the US NSA, and to chair a gathering of consuls general. “During my stay, incoming NSA-designate met with me. At no stage was an invitation in respect of PM discussed… Our PM does not attend such events. In fact, India is generally represented by special envoys. Rahul’s lies may be intended politically, but they damage the nation abroad,” he said.
Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan joined in and dubbed Rahul’s statement as “frivolous and objectionable”. “At least this has never happened in democratic parliamentary tradition of this country. In matters of foreign policy, the governing party and opposition always stood together. But due to his conduct and working style, Rahul Gandhi is constantly seen standing against the country,” he said.
With the PM in attendance, Rahul said Modi’s ‘Make in India‘ has failed as manufacturing to GDP share has dropped to a 60-year low from 15.3% to 12.6%. In contrast, he said China controls production of critical technology that drive change in mobility – electric motors, batteries, optics, application of AI – even as he argued that any war with China would be decided by these technologies, and Chinese “sitting inside India” is a result of its advantage in new technologies and production. “China has a 10-year lead on India…,” he said.
Slamming the President’s joint address to Parliament, Rahul said instead of furnishing the same “laundry list” of things heard year after year under PM Modi, an INDIA bloc govt would give a vision for the future by exhorting the youth to embrace the new technology “revolution”. In contrast, he said India rode the wave of the “last revolution” of computers in the 1980s because, under Congress, the govt had a clear vision about it. He listed “technology and production, caste census and defence of the Constitution” as priority for Congress.
With caste survey of Congress-governed Telangana just out, Rahul said 90% of the state population belongs to SC/ST/OBC/minorities, and conjectured that OBCs nationally are over 50% of the population. In contrast, he said the ownership patterns of corporations and media houses do not reflect the demographic pie. He said a caste census would help the country in ensuring “participation”, while use of AI on census data would make a “social revolution”. As he claimed the SC/ST/OBC MPs in BJP are not empowered to speak, ministers asked him if he could not see the OBC PM.
Rahul’s speech, focussing on “alternative vision” as envisioned in an INDIA bloc govt’s presidential address, was a departure from his style of past when he has relied on sharp, shrill political critique of the govt, laden with pithy monikers that became buzzwords to target Modi govt like “hum do, hamare do”, “suit boot ki sarkar”.