Rahul Gandhi attacks government in Parliament, triggers protests

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday linked “the failure” of the “Make in India” programme with the Chinese aggression along the borders, admitted even the previous Congress-led government failed to address the unemployment issue and made a pitch for organising a strong “production system” in the country.

Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address to Parliament on January 31, Gandhi reiterated the demand for a caste census. He said a similar exercise in Congress-ruled Telangana has shown Dalits, tribals, backward communities, and minorities account for 90% of the population. Gandhi said more voters were added in the five months between the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Maharashtra than those in five years.

Gandhi’s remarks, especially on foreign relations with the US and the border row with China, triggered protests from the ruling party as Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat through the speech. Speaker Om Birla twice asked Gandhi to authenticate his allegations with proper documents.

Gandhi started his speech by offering suggestions on how to improve India’s production system and address unemployment. He said he does not hold Modi responsible for the failure of “Make in India”, which he called a good idea. Gandhi later sharpened his attack and alleged that the army contradicted Modi’s claim that there was no Chinese incursion. He lashed out at Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological fount Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, for “not acknowledging” August 15, 1947, as the Independence Day.

Gandhi said China was ahead of India by 10 in making robots, batteries, etc. “We cannot afford Chinese at the forefront of the [production] revolution. Today, we have the Chinese sitting on 4,000 square km of our land. The PM [Prime Minister] denied this and the army contradicted him.”

He said the army keeps talking to the Chinese and the chief of staff said the Chinese were inside the Indian territory. “People think wars are fought between armies and their weapons. But wars are fought between industrial systems. China has a far stronger industrial system. The reason China has entered India is because the Make in India has failed,” Gandhi said amid protests from the ruling party.

“If and when we fight a war with China, we will be fighting against Chinese batteries and robots. For the future of our children, we have to build a production line,” Gandhi said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju challenged Gandhi. “How can you make fictitious allegations? Such things are not good for the country. You need to be serious.”

An undeterred Gandhi took a dig at Modi in an oblique reference to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. “When our foreign minister goes to the US, we would not send him to get an invitation for our PM. If we had a strong production system and working on technologies, then the US President would have come here and invited the PM,” Gandhi said.

Rijiju accused Gandhi of making unsubstantiated statements. “This is on foreign policy. Does the LoP [leader of the Opposition] have any information on the subject about which he is talking? On the issue of the nation, we should be on the same page.”

Gandhi earlier said even though India has grown, the problem it faces is the inability to tackle the problem of unemployment. “Neither the [Congress-led] UPA [United Progressive Alliance government], nor the [BJP-led] NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government has addressed this issue.” He referred to “Make in India” and said it was a good idea. “But we saw statues, functions, and advertisements. And the manufacturing fell from 15% to 12.6%. I am not even blaming the PM. I think he tried. But it is pretty clear that he failed,” he said.

He asked how was India going to solve this problem. “By organising consumption and production. Pretty much every government since the 1990s has done a decent job. Uber organises consumption and Adani consumption. We have Mahindras, Bajajs, and Tatas. But we have handed over the organisation of production to the Chinese.”