Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday attacked Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over his “stupid self-confidence.” Her remarks came just hours after the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha claimed that China “is sitting inside the country” due to the failure of the Make-In-India initiative.
Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhfi, launched a sharp attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament on Monday, blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative for failing to boost manufacturing and claiming that its failure had allowed China to occupy Indian territory.
Speaking during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s speech, Gandhi admitted that neither the Congress-led UPA nor the BJP-led NDA had been able to effectively tackle the country’s unemployment crisis.
Acknowledging the challenges in job creation, he said, “Now, even though we have grown (and) grown fast… a universal problem we have faced is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment. Neither the UPA nor today’s NDA government has given a clear-cut answer to the youth of this country about employment.”
While he conceded that PM Modi’s push for manufacturing was a good idea in principle, he argued that India had failed to implement it effectively. Holding up his mobile phone, he pointed out that despite being assembled in India, its components were all manufactured in China.
Pivoting to the India-China border issue, Gandhi claimed that Beijing was now “sitting on over 4,000 sq km” of Indian territory, contradicting the government’s stance that no land had been lost. He alleged that even the Indian Army had contradicted the Prime Minister’s claims, stating that Chinese troops had encroached on Indian land.
“Our Chief of Army Staff said Chinese are inside our territory… this is a fact (and) the reason China is inside is because ‘Make in India’ has failed… India is refusing to produce, and I’m worried India is going to give up this revolution to the Chinese, again,” he warned.
Responding to these remarks in an interview with India Today TV, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed Gandhi’s claims and questioned his authority to speak on economic matters.
When asked about his assertion that both the UPA and NDA had failed to address unemployment, Sitharaman strongly countered, saying that the economy was in “doldrums” during Congress rule.
“During UPA rule, nothing happened. There was an economic standstill, banks faced massive losses, industry leaders shut shop, and some even left India. So, Rahul accepting that they were unable to provide jobs for the youth is not enough. The economy was in doldrums, the leaders who left the economy in absolute shambles are today accepting that they were unable to provide jobs-this isn’t enough. Does this even make sense?” she asked.
She further criticised the economic legacy of the UPA, stating that banks were in crisis and economic offenders took advantage of the weak financial system to flee the country.
“We were fifth from the bottom, now we’re fifth overall, and in the next two years, we’ll reach third spot. Economic offenders took advantage, took this money, and left the country. With the help of the Enforcement Directorate, we confiscated properties belonging to such businessmen and returned Rs 22,000 crore to the banks,” she said.
Taking a direct swipe at Rahul Gandhi, Sitharaman asserted that he was not qualified to speak on economic matters. “They don’t have the status to talk about economic issues. Rahul is not qualified enough to talk about the economy,” she said, reinforcing her criticism of his remarks.
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