Sitharaman blasts Rahul Gandhi over Chinese in Indian territory claim, reminds him of ‘Congress-rule deal’

In an interview with India Today, Nirmala Sitharaman raised questions about the Congress-led UPA government’s 2008 memorandum with China and urged the party to disclose it.

“During your rule, you went to China and signed an agreement. Why don’t you disclose what is in that agreement? Why don’t you talk about how much land China took from Kashmir and Ladakh during Congress rule?” Sitharaman told the news channel. “…Look at that stupid self-confidence with which he stands up.”

She also defended India’s manufacturing industry, highlighting the developments made in the smartphone manufacturing sector.

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“What did you (Congress) do in the 10 years of your rule? Did you make even one unit? We spent four to five years cleaning up the mess left by Congress after a decade of their rule,” she told India Today.

The finance minister also questioned Gandhi’s authority to speak on matters related to the Indian economy. “They don’t have the status to talk about economic issues. Rahul is not qualified enough to talk about the economy,” she told India Today.

What Rahul Gandhi said

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi while participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address to Parliament on January 31 spoke about the Indian economy, Chinese aggression along the borders and the unemployment issue in the country.

In the presence of PM Modi in the House, Rahul said that ‘Make in India’ was a good idea, but it is clear now that it has “pretty much failed”.

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“Manufacturing fell from 15.3 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 12.6 per cent of GDP today i.e. the lowest share of manufacturing in 60 years,” he said.

“I am not even blaming the prime minister because it would not be fair to say that the prime minister did not try. I think the prime minister tried and conceptually ‘Make in India’ was a good idea but it is pretty clear that it failed,” Gandhi added.

He also said that China has a 10-year lead over India in terms of the revolution.

“Today, we have the Chinese (on our land) but the Prime Minister has denied it, the Army disagreed with the Prime Minister,” he said, to strong protests from the treasury benches.

“The PM has denied that Chinese forces are inside our territory, but for some reason, our army keeps talking to the Chinese about their entry into our territory, and our chief of army staff has said that the Chinese are inside our territory,” he added.