The ruling BJP, bombarded with questions from Rahul Gandhi on the China crisis, hit back today with a dig at his reported absence from meetings of the Standing Committee on Defence, a cross-party panel of MPs. BJP chief JP Nadda, in tweets, said the Congress MP “does not attend a single meeting” of the panel but continued to question the armed forces.
“Rahul Gandhi does not attend a single meeting of Standing Committee on Defence. But sadly, he continues to demoralise the nation, question the valour of our armed forces and do everything that a responsible opposition leader should not do,” Mr Nadda tweeted.
“Rahul Gandhi belongs to that glorious dynastic tradition where as far as defence is concerned, committees don’t matter, only commissions do. Congress has many deserving members who understand parliamentary matters but one dynasty will never let such leaders grow. Really sad,” said the BJP president. Rahul Gandhi has been leading the Congress party’s attacks on the government over a range of subjects including the June 15 clash with China in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty.
Reports have flagged, citing the Lok Sabha website, that Mr Gandhi has not attended a single meeting of the Standing Committee on Defence since it was formed last year.
The committee has met 11 times since September last year, and Mr Gandhi is not listed among those who attended each meeting.
The former Congress president’s sharp attacks on the government on China have included questions on whether Indian Territory was “surrendered” to the country in the long face-off with the country at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
In one of his recent tweets, Mr Gandhi said while the people of Ladakh claim that China has taken their land, the PM says otherwise and someone is “lying”. He also tweeted a video of residents of Ladakh accusing China of occupying Indian Territory.