China ‘sitting inside’ Indian territory because Make in India failed, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that the failure of the Union government’s Make in India initiative had allowed the Chinese military to establish a presence on Indian territory.

“Our Chief of Army Staff has said that the Chinese are inside our territory,” Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha, in an apparent reference to the military stand-off between the two sides at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. “This is a fact. The reason China is inside our territory is important.”

The leader of Opposition in the Lower House said that “people think wars are fought between armies and their weapons”.

“But the fact of the matter is that wars are fought by industrial systems,” he said. “China has an industrial system that is far stronger, far bigger than our industrial system. And that is why they have the guts to come inside this country.”

“The reason China is sitting inside the country is because ‘Make in India’ has failed,” Gandhi added.

The Make in India initiative was launched by the Narendra Modi government in September 2014 to encourage companies to assemble products and boost investments in manufacturing in the country.

The comment was made during a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address.

Gandhi said that the reason the…

Read more