Congress leader in his Parliament speech said, “The nation is at risk from outside, the nation is at risk from inside.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Motion Of Thanks’
Rahul Gandhi in his ‘Motion Of Thanks’ to the Honorable President’s address expressed the following issues focusing on the pressing problems. He said, “There are three fundamental things that were not spoken about in the Presidential address. First, and what I consider to be the most important, is the idea that there are now- two Indias. There is now no longer one India, there are two Indias.”
He went on to say, “One India is for the extremely rich people, those who have immense wealth, for those who have immense power, for those who control the heartbeat of the country.”
While he assured the government that he is not speaking from a spirit of criticism but one from discomfort with the state of India, worried about what is happening to the country, as a citizen of the nation.
He spoke about the 46% drop in manufacturing jobs in India, because the government destroyed the unorganized sector, destroyed the MSMEs, only focusing on 5-10 people.
Rahul Gandhi said, “I don’t have a problem with big industries, focus on them but please realize that they cannot produce jobs for you. Small and medium industries are the only ones that can produce jobs in the country.”: · He brought out the fascist kingdom kind of rule that was rising under BJP and said, “No matter what fantasies you may have, you will never ever rule over the people of the states of India, it has never been done in 3000 years.”
He went on to say, “The only way India has been ruled – look at any empire you want, you can look at Ashoka the great, you can look at the Mauryas, you can look at anyone you want – has always been through conversations and negotiations.:
He said, “Congress smashed the Idea of ‘King’ in 1947. Now the idea of a king has come back that there is a king. A Shahenshah, a ruler of rulers, a master of masters. Congress will smash the Idea of ‘Shehanshah’ in 2024.”
LIVE: Shri @RahulGandhi on 'Motion Of Thanks' to the Hon'ble President's address.#JantaKiAawazRahul https://t.co/46BGLYJkDL — Congress (@INCIndia) February 2, 2022
He said that the Modi government brought China and Pakistan together. An opinion which the BJP rejected and Jaishankar of BJP Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India said that Pakistan illegally handed over the Shaksgam Valley to China in 1963 when a Congress government was in office.
Speaking about Rahul Gandhi’s Parliament Speech, speaking to news agency ANI, Mr. Tharoor said, “We (Congress) are saying that the country has been weakened in both its domestic unity and strength and in its external national security. That, I think, is a very powerful and important message.”
Mr. Thaoor also emphasized that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the past always made sure that China did not take advantage of the war-like situation between India and Pakistan.
He said, “In many ways, any risk of Chinese involvement was neutralized by Indira Gandhi’s outreach to Moscow. There were always approaches made to ensure that when Pakistan was getting belligerent, China didn’t take advantage and when China attacked us, Pakistan didn’t get active against us,” he said while accentuating the accomplishments of Indira Gandhi’s foreign policy.
Why is Rahul Gandhi Right Saying India is in Danger from Inside and Outside?
Communal politics have caused deeper divisions within Indian society elevating the levels of fear and suspicion between different communities.
Prime Minister Modi’s Outreach to Our Neighbors
The foreign policy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while looking progressive with his visitations and trade deals, other factors are actually weakening the nation.
When Narendra Modi was elected as Prime Minister in 2014, he set out to do a Herculean task of inviting all our neighboring countries, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and others for his grand inauguration, a grand gesture towards strengthening diplomatic, economic, ties.
On December 25, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan, Islamabad to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This was the first time an Indian premier ever visited the “rival” nation in over a decade as the smoke from the fires of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks were still fuming and relationships were strained.
India and Nepal have a long strong bilateral history of support and trade with a deep connection with Nepal’s 81% Hindus and India’s 80% Hindus. After assuming power in May 2014, Nepal was one of the first foreign trips of the Prime Minister when he visited in August. He went to Nepal four times with powerful proclamations that India stood with Nepal all along its development journey.
China and India, two rich ancient civilizations have kept up good alliances over decades anchoring steady relations after the India-China war. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping had extended conversations over time, building towards stronger ties. Xi Jinping visited India on a personal capacity for the first time in October 2019, and they had an informal summit’ in Mamallapuram on the beautiful island strip of land between the Bay of Bengal and the Great Salt Lake, with an exotic private dinner held at the famous Shore Temple complex.
Diplomatic relations between India and Bhutan were established in 1968 with the formation of a special office of India in Thimphu. This is a time-tested bilateral relationship fortified by trust, goodwill, and mutual understanding. The special relationship has been sustained by a tradition of regular high-level visits and dialogues between the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too reached out to Bhutan visiting it twice and he and the Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering held long productive talks. The two nations signed 10 Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) to infuse new vitality in their ties.
The aftermath of Prime Minister’s Visits
Pakistan: After PM Modi’s visit to Pakistan, on the morning of 1 January 2016 at around 03:30 IST, at least six heavily armed people dressed in Indian Army uniforms breached the high-security perimeter of the airbase in Pathankot and 7 soldiers were martyred in Pathankot.
On 18 September 2016, near the town of Uri in the Indian former state of Jammu and Kashmir, there was an attack by four heavily armed terrorists. It was considered “the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades” where 19 Indian soldiers were killed along with 4 terrorists.
On 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in the Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The attack resulted in the deaths of 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and the terrorist.
Relations between India and Pakistan turned sour to due to political cold-war escalations fueled further by terrorist scuffles with the Indian army. Serene relations were now impossible. Nationalism in India was rising higher and people wanted to see wildfire and blood.
Bhutan: Bhutan took offense to the intemperate remarks of the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, after the cross border raid by the Indian Army into Myanmarese (Bhutan-Burma) territory. He said that the Indian government was now pursuing a new policy of “hot pursuit”, and that “We will carry out surgical strikes at the place and time of our own choosing”. Such statements would obviously be worrying for any neighboring countries.
A new law is now recently made for Indian nationals visiting Bhutan where Indians now need to carry a voter’s ID card or passport to enter Bhutan. Previously, no such documents were required signaling a shift in trust. Previously, no one required a passport to enter Bhutan or Nepal. Now, Indians require this. The level of trust has gone down!
A new law is now recently made for Indian nationals visiting Bhutan where Indians now need to carry a voter’s ID card or passport to enter Bhutan. Previously, no such documents were required signaling a shift in trust. Previously, no one required a passport to enter Bhutan or Nepal. Now, Indians require this. The level of trust has gone down!
While Bhutan previously leaned on India for protection against China due to China’s aggression in Tibet, China has now cleverly has enhanced diplomatic ties with Bhutan, traveling as tourists to Bhutan bringing in a rich source of revenue, and pouring in massive investments in Tibet opening wider avenues of opportunities for nascent Bhutanese traders.
Nepal: PM Modi 2015 blockade of Nepal provoked an economic and humanitarian crisis that affected Nepal where Nepal rose up with anti-India slogans and pro-China sentiments. Distrust towards India was rocketing due to the poor foreign policies of PM Modi. Recently, for the first time in Indian-Nepal history, Nepali police officers shot at six Indian citizens at the border and one of them died just because the Nepalese said the Indians were trying to illegally enter the border during the COVID crisis. There was no apology or regret on the part of Nepal for that indiscriminate shooting
The next thing that transpired was Nepal’s House of Representatives on Saturday unanimously passed a Constitutional amendment revising the map on its coat of arms to include three areas of Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura that India later in the evening asserted were part of its territory. The Nepal Parliament approved of a new map without a single vote against it. Many Indians said no one had united Nepal as PM Modi has done!
While Nepal is grateful for the vaccines provided by India during the COVID surge, relationships are strained and it is no small matter that China and Nepal are “best friends” now and not India.
Pakistan started cuddling closer to China, and Nepal a country with a majority Hindu population was going further from India, as was Bhutan. It still remains to be seen how close they are to China.
Why did Nepal ruthlessly shoot at our Indian citizens at the border simply because they were trying to encroach in, why did China annex Ladakh easily without a fight from India, why did Bhutan suddenly cool off ties with India, and of course why are our perennial strained relations with Pakistan never-ending.
China: While the world in 2020 is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, lakhs of lives are lost, and medical science is still grappling with creating a vaccine, the Chinese army of 5000 troops shamelessly snaked over to Lakadh and annexed 60 square kilometers of India in Ladakh. Such brazen boldness was least expected at a time like this.
Then the worst happened! The bloodiest India-China clash in 40 years took place after this annexation, leaving 20 Indian soldiers and a colonel killed in a very brutal Medieval attack on our Indian soldiers by the Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley. This inflamed the already stoking fires in the border standoff between the two sides.
It is also true that Pakistan has more nuclear weapons than India and China has more than double as recently discovered. More muscle power can build bigger bullies! Yet there is another factor that we always overlook or minimize, but it is perhaps one of the top causes of this shift in our relationships with our neighbors:
Why Are Modi Ji’s Policies Weakening India?
The enemy is always within and not outside. The enemy is within and not without. Our main problem is the new climate of hate emerging in India reinforced by spurious hate speech from insidious groups weaving venom into the fabric of our nation propagating fear between the different religions. This has never been witnessed to these high proportions in India before.
Divide and Rule: Media and platforms of social media especially WhatsApp can generate the highest volumes of fake news designed to divide and rule fragment the country to build religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims It is believed this was done to put an unnatural fear of Muslims and project the BJP as protectors of the nation so the votes would only go to them from the majoritarian Hindus.
Hate heated up the nation and India never saw so many burning buses, houses, even people burned alive, gunshots and violence erupting all over the country. Not to say violence has not been there in the past, but now it was reaching pan India, not limited to locations.
They want to put hatred between Hindus and Christians and Muslims and Hindus. From 2016 to 2020, there is over 100% rise of hate crimes against Christians all over the nation with physical violence, attacks on women, children, burning down churches, threats, intimidation, and house churches forcibly closed down by religious fanatics and local authorities and killing Christians.
Those hate crimes will never be reported by the main Media because “it is a sensitive issue.” India ranked #10 on the Open Doors World Watch List where previously it was #31. The recent terrible killing of Samaru Madkami 14 who was lynched, hacked into pieces by a group of religious fanatics in Odisha, was a religious hate crime. An unhealthy, unnatural, and exaggerated propaganda about Christians converting is being spread causing this increased hatred and violence.
In an atmosphere of fear and hatred, prosperity cannot produce its fruit, and creativity and inventory cannot build its pathway.
The neighboring countries are watching this atmosphere of hate and instability and it empowers them. They are taking advantage of our internal divisions and rising hate. Pakistanis are hearing hate speeches against Muslims and the constant threat to Indian citizens of “Go to Pakistan” is degenerating the word “Pakistan” making it sound like anathema to all Indians. This negativity and hate vibes from us have united the neighbors against India to deeper degrees.
Financial Downfall: People want to invest in a country that is politically stable in a tranquil atmosphere enhanced by loving friendly people. Such nations thrive. No one wants to invest in a country with political unrest with the threat of riots to spurt out any minute, the terror of hate religious crimes, or fear of rapes and murders for women.
With the release of goons by political parties to meet their ends, there was a loose noose of law enforcement over these criminals, who were eventually released and even garlanded. With this political message from the men on top, rapists and murderers were now empowered and set out on a rampage of raping girls and women and then setting them on fire.
Tourism is down, unlike the previous decades and while one can name it on COVID-19, the truth is it was down even before 2020. In the past, Western nations would flock to India, but in recent years, they prefer holidaying in Hawaii, the Bahamas, Mediterranean countries, or Europe, as India seems a battle zone to them right now. Our neighboring countries will take advantage of these cracks of economic meltdown and rose to hit us down even further.
Insecurity: India is not a Red Samurai nation, but a democratic republic, and the world has always applauded India for its vibrant democratic environment and energy. If India shows the world it hates its minorities such as Muslims and Christians, it is choking its democratic air and the world will not feel as secure about India. The hate speeches of Hindutva nationals against Muslims would incite fanatical and terror groups outside India to attack India. The terror attacks in Kashmir have increased in proportion to the hate speeches spewed by the fanatical pseudo-nationals.
A divided house will fall drastically. India became a divided house and the government, by calling their own citizens anti-national at the drop of a hat without any verification is only weakening their strengths by fighting their own.
While top Bjp leaders say they do not give any importance to Rahul Gandhi’s speech, they are all reacting to his speech and seeking an apology from him. This signifies they are disturbed and has shaken them and they have taken his speech quite seriously.
“So, this is a new situation as he is suggesting and I think it’s very important that these messages be listened to. We are not suggesting that as far as the country is concerned, we are facing war tomorrow,” Mr. Tharoor added.
Rita
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