Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his ‘hugplomacy’ jibe saying, it was the Congress leader who hugged the Chinese Ambassador when the Indian Army was in a standoff with Chinese troops in Doklam earlier this year.
“When the Indian Army was standing eye-to-eye with Chinese in Doklam for 70 days, you were hugging the Ambassador of China. When the Indian soldier stood for the country, you were hugging the Chinese Ambassador. For whom? I am asking you a question,” he said addressing a public meeting resuming his election campaign in north Gujarat after a break.
“This is Modi. He has been nurtured in this land of Sardar Patel…The people who have looted the country will have to give it back,” he said, reminding his audience of the surgical strikes carried out last year by his government after the Uri attack
“I asked a Congressman to write down the names of all the Presidents of Congress. The people who do not know the names of Congress leaders, how will they develop our nation?” Modi asked.
He said the Congress cannot think beyond one family. “How many people remember Kamaraj or Debharbhai (U.N. Dhebar), who were presidents of Congress nationally. Many in the party would not even know that Debharbhai was a Gujarati. The party that does not go beyond one family, what do you expect from them?” he added.
Modi expressed his confidence that the BJP in Gujarat will win 151 seats in the 182-member assembly.
On Saturday, Gandhi had in a sarcastic tweet raised questions over Indian diplomacy after a Pakistani court allowed release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Sayeed from jail. “Narendrabhai, baat nahi bani (this is not done). Terror mastermind is free. President Trump just delinked Pak military funding from LeT. Hugplomacy fail. More hugs urgently needed,” Gandhi tweeted on Saturday morning.