BJP hits back, says Cong V-P suffers from ‘Modiphobia’
BJP hits back, says Cong V-P suffers from ‘Modiphobia’
Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his government’s foreign policy, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the PM lacks clear vision and believes that international diplomacy can be done as per his “whims and fancies”.
The BJP hit back by raking up the foreign policy “failures” of the earlier Congress-led UPA government.
“What is required is a coherent strategy, having a clear vision on what one wants to do. What is lacking is that the Prime Minister does not have that clear vision... The Prime Minister moves, jumps from one position to another and he thinks that international diplomacy can be done on the basis of his whims and fancies. He thinks like going to Pakistan one day, and he gets up and goes to Pakistan. This is not how you run foreign policy,” Mr Gandhi said while interacting with the media.
Raking up the UPA’s foreign policy “failures”, the BJP highlighted the “success” of Modi government in foreign affairs and cited issues like rescue of over 18,000 Indians from abroad and “growing” ties with major countries across the world.
“The Congress V-P suffers from Modiphobia. Does he remember the fiasco at Sharm El Sheikh or that the UPA government had an external affairs minister who read out a speech meant for foreign minister of another country at a UN meeting ... a dossier of terrorists given to Pakistan by the then UPA government carried names of dead terrorists or those lodged in Indian jails. Rahul Gandhi should do some home work,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
He said countries which maintained a distance from India earlier, now want better mutual and business ties and Modi government has enhanced the prestige of India and Indians the world over.
A joint Indo-Pak statement in Sharm El Sheikh, when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, had invited criticism from several quarters for allegedly compromising India’s stand on terrorism.
On Mr Gandhi’s criticism over the attack on IAF base in Pathankot, Mr Sharma said while the UPA government was found sleeping during the Mumbai terror attack, the Modi government acted promptly in killing terrorists involved in the attack.
