Rahul Gandhi in London: Chinese are still in Doklam, Modi lacks coherent strategy on Pak  

Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Doklam crisis, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said Doklam was not a border but a “strategic issue.”

Speaking at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), London, Gandhi said Doklam happened because the Modi government viewed it as an event.

“It is a part of a sequence of events and Doklam was a crisis that happened because the government is episodic,” said Rahul adding, while PM views things very much from an event’s perspective, he views Doklam as a process.

When asked how differently he would have handled the crisis, the Congress president said, “I would look at the process and I would tackle the process and I am pretty confident that Doklam wouldn’t have happened...because you could’ve stopped Doklam if you were carefully watching the process.”

“The Chinese have withdrawn from the point of contact. They’ve withdrawn from where the altercation happened. (But) The truth is the Chinese are still in Doklam,” he added.

Talking about what India can learn from China, Gandhi said: “Looking at the mobility in India, how do you transform air travel in India, how do open up the air space, that's one thing India can learn from China.”

Modi lacks coherent strategy on Pak

Not only on China, but the Modi government lacks a “coherent strategy” towards Pakistan, said Rahul during his address. He said Modi’s foreign policy is based on “hugs.” Rahul said Pakistan promotes terrorism in India and it is not possible to talk in such a situation.

“The Modi government lack a coherent strategy towards Pakistan, it’s episodic. The Prime Minister flies there for a wedding. There’s no deeply thought out strategy,” said Rahul while adding foreign policy based on hugs does not work.

“We have tremendous structures in our country, institutional structures that understand these things, one has to use those structures to develop strategy.The question with Pakistan is who do you talk to in Pakistan. Pakistan, from our perspective, has a number of institutions. So, the difficulty from an Indian perspective is which institution do you talk to?” Gandhi said.

Blaming Modi government for not having coherent strategic vision, Rahul said,“I don't see a coherent strategy based on India’s strength, I see tactical responses, I see knee-jerk reactions, but I don’t see a strategic vision that says this is how India is going to chart its course through 21st century.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has no job

Hitting out at Modi, Rahul said there is a monopoly of the PMO on the External Affairs Ministry and that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has no job except spending a lot of time working on people’s visas.

“It means the Foreign Minister has nothing better to do than get people visas. So, only there is the monopoly of the Foreign Ministry, and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) has monopoly over the Foreign Ministry.”

Praising Swaraj, Gandhi said she is quite a capable lady. “If you actually give her the power to do something, she could probably break that monopoly (in the ministry),” said Rahul.

Denying Congress’ role in 1984 Sikh riots, Rahul said, “it was a tragedy, a painful experience but if you say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don’t agree with that. Certainly, there was violence, certainly there was tragedy.

(With IANS inputs)