Modi's 'indiscretions' weakened India: Rahul on LAC standoff

Stepping up his attack on the government over the Laine of Actual Contorl standoff, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday issued a video message sharing his thoughts on why did China choose to be aggressive now and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "indiscretions" have weakened the country and left it vulnerable.

In the video message posted on Twitter, he hit out at the government saying that over the last six years, India has been "disturbed and disrupted" with regard to its foreign policy and economy.

The video message is the first of a series initiated by Gandhi to share his thoughts with people on various issues facing the country.

"Since 2014, the PM's constant blunders and indiscretions have fundamentally weakened India and left us vulnerable. Empty words don't suffice in the world of geopolitics," he alleged in a tweet along with the video message.

Gandhi said one has to go into multiple spaces, including India's economy and ties with neighbours and other countries, to understand why did the Chinese choose this particular time to move against India and violate the Line of Actual Control and what gave them the confidence to turn so aggressive.

"Today, you have a country which is economically in trouble; in trouble as far as foreign policy is concerned; in trouble with its neighbours; and that's why the Chinese have decided that this is possibly the best time to act and that is why they have acted," he alleged.

Noting that countries are protected by a "confluence of forces and systems", he said, "a country is protected by its foreign relationships, it is protected by its neighbourhood, by its economy, by the feeling that its people have and the vision that its people have."

Gandhi has attacked the prime minister and the government over the India-China border conflict in Ladakh in the past as well and alleged their "failure" in handling the issue.

Hitting back at Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party said he was trying to "divide the nation" and "demoralise" the country's armed forces by questioning the handling of the border situation.

On India's foreign policy, Gandhi said the country had relationships with multiple countries and it used to share a strategic partnership with the US.

India also had a relationship with Russia and Europe and they used to help it manoeuvre in the world, he said.

"Today...we have a transactional relationship with the United States. We have disturbed our relationship with the Russians. We have a transactional relationship with Europe," he alleged.

He claimed that in the neighbourhood all countries, other than Pakistan, had been working with India and partnered with it in the past.

Gandhi alleged that today Nepalese are angry, Sri Lankans have given a port to the Chinese, Maldives is disturbed and so is Bhutan. "So we have disrupted our foreign partners, we've disrupted our neighbourhood," he alleged.

On the economic front, he said, the economy was India's pride and it used to go to the rest of the world and boast about it. "But, India has seen the worst economic growth in 50 years and there is no end in sight," he said.

Alleging that unemployment rate was the highest in 40-50 years, he said, "Our strengths have suddenly become our weaknesses."

"We told the government that look, please realise that we are becoming vulnerable. All these things are connected, they're not separate," he said.

The Congress wanted money to be injected into the economy and protection for small and medium businesses, "but, they (government) refused to do it," he said.