A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that India is the only country after the US and Israel to protect its borders, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a jibe at him, saying “everyone knows the reality of the borders”.
Taking pun on the Home Minister’s name, Gandhi tweeted in Hindi: “Everyone knows the reality of the borders, but ‘Shah-yad’ (maybe) it’s a good idea to keep one’s heart happy.”
Addressing a public rally in Bihar on Sunday via video conference, Amit Shah had said that after United States of America and Israel, if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India.
“India’s defence policy has gained global acceptance in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The whole world agrees that after USA and Israel if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India,” he said.
“There was a time when anybody used to enter our borders, beheaded our soldiers and Delhi’s darbar remained unaffected. Uri and Pulwama happened during our time, it was the Modi and BJP government, we did surgical strikes and airstrike,” he added.
On June 3, Rahul Gandhi had questioned the Central government over the military standoff with China in Ladakh. He had tweeted: “Can the government of India please confirm that no Chinese soldiers have entered India?”
On May 29, the former Congress president had said that the Government must come clean and tell India exactly what’s happening between India and China.
He took to Twitter and said, “The Government’s silence about the border situation with China is fueling massive speculation and uncertainty at a time of crisis. GOI must come clean and tell India exactly what’s happening.”
Rahul Gandhi had on May 26 as well, said that the Government should come out clean on the situation arising at Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and inform the citizens about what is happening there.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Gandhi had said, “The details of what happened along the border, the government should share with the people.”
He said, what happened with Nepal and why, what is happening in Ladakh should be made clear.
“I cannot see transparency. The issue of Ladakh and China is a live issue. Transparency is required,” he had said while responding to a question on the face-off on LAC that was triggered the Chinese objected to road construction and development of infrastructure by India within the Indian territory.
Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs.
While the standoff between India and China is signalling that it could become the biggest military face-off after the Doklam crisis in 2017.
The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to “disengage” following a meeting at the level of local commanders.
The trigger for the face-off was China’s opposition to India laying a key road in the finger area around Pangong Tso Lake, besides construction of another road connecting Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.
The nearly 3,500-km-long LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries.
In March, last year, days after the Pulwama attack, Amit Shah had said that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can protect the borders of the country, not the Congress party and its chief Rahul Gandhi.
India under the leadership of PM Modi took revenge of the blood of the soldiers after the Uri and Pulwama attacks by Pakistan-based terror elements, the then BJP president had said.