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In the episode of his own version of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat , Congress’s former president Rahul Gandhi said there is no end in sight for the ‘worst economic growth in 50 years’. He said it is an absolute disaster and added that unemployment is highest in the last 40-50 years and the country’s strengths have suddenly become its weaknesses.
He said the Congress had told the government that it should realise that the country’s economy is becoming vulnerable.
“We told them listen; for God’s sake inject money into the economy. Fire (up) the economy and do it immediately; protect the small and medium businesses. They refused to do it. So 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,” the Wayanad MP claimed.
On the Chinese incursions, he said countries are protected not by one particular thing but by a confluence of forces and systems. “A country is protected by its foreign relationships, it is protected by its neighbourhood, it is protected by its economy, it is protected by the feeling that its people have. The vision that its people have and what has happened over the last six years is that in all those areas India has been disturbed and disrupted,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said today, India’s relationship with other countries has become transactional. “We have a transactional relationship with the United States. We have disturbed our relationship with the Russians. We have a transactional relationship with Europe.
Now let’s come to our neighbourhood. Earlier Nepal was a friend. Bhutan was a friend. Sri Lanka was a friend. Our neighbourhood, other than Pakistan was working with India and saw itself as being partnered with India.
Today Nepal is angry with us. If you go to Nepal and you speak to the Nepali people they are furious with what has happened. Sri Lankans have given a port to the Chinese. Maldives is disturbed. Bhutan is disturbed. So we have disrupted our foreign partners we’ve disrupted our neighbourhood,” he said.
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