Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday over his handling of the unrest in Kashmir and his strategy with regard to Pakistan, saying the PM has created a political vacuum in the valley that is giving a free run to terrorists, resulting in the killing of Indian soldiers.
Rahul, who presided over the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting in the absence of party chief Sonia Gandhi, who is unwell, accused the prime minister of being a prisoner of his own image and claimed that the country has suffered severe damage as a result of Modi's "vanity and incompetence".
"The prime minister often asks what the Congress did in the last 60 years...But I would like to tell the prime minister what the Congress didn't do in 67 years. The Congress never gave India a prime minister who was a prisoner of his own image," he said.
"We never gave India a prime minister who was ready to inflict such tremendous suffering on the people of India to protect his own persona. We never gave India a prime minister who based his entire policy making strategy on TRP (television rating point). We never gave India a prime minister who bypassed the experience of those sitting in the institutions," he said.
Recalling that Modi had been critical of the UPA's Pakistan policy, he said the Congress government's strategy had resulted in the global isolation of Pakistan and brought peace in Kashmir. "By the time Congress left government in 2014, 50 plane loads of tourists were landing in Srinagar airport every day”.
"Today the same person who used to ridicule us sits silently while Kashmir burns," he said, adding that Modi will be judged by history as the man who gifted a massive political space to anti-India forces by creating an opportunistic political alliance between the BJP and the PDP.
He said soldiers and their families were paying the price. "85 soldiers have been martyred. That is the highest number of men we have lost in almost a decade”.
Rahul, who has been consistently attacking Modi in the recent times, especially after the demonetisation drive, said the BJP government needs to develop a coherent strategy with regard to Pakistan. "We were told that the idea behind the (surgical) strikes was to stop Pakistan from cross border attacks. There have been 21 major attacks and hundreds of ceasefire violations since the strikes," he pointed out.
Holding the Modi government responsible for the deaths of army personnel in terror strikes, Rahul said, "Is the government not responsible for maintaining the security of our bases? Are these young men just statistics destined to gather dust in the records of the government of India? Does the government not owe them an apology?"
The Congress leader also attacked Modi over the demonetisation drive, saying all cash is not black money and all black money is not cash. "It is a documented fact that only six per cent of black money is held in cash. The remaining 94 per cent is held in gold, real estate and dollars stashed abroad. This is well understood by the prime minister. In 2014, he had promised to bring back black money held in foreign banks and deposit Rs 15 lakh in every Indian bank account. How much money has he got back? Not one rupee. How many people has he put behind bars? Not one. He has clearly failed to deliver his promise," he said.
He further slammed Modi for his continued absence from the parliament, saying the prime minister does not feel it is worth his time to sit in the house and listen to the views of its democratically elected members.
