“Surrender Modi” boomerangs on Rahul as “Surrender Congress”
By Amba Charan Vashishth
By hurling a “Surrender Modi” tweet on PM Narendra Modi, the former Congress President Rahul Gandhi exposed his own poverty of knowledge of the facts of history. History proves him wrong. The epithet “Surrender Modi” boomerangs on Rahul and sticks tightly on his party’s forehead as “Surrender Congress”. The reports of Indian National Congress having signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the Communist Party of China (CPC) has startled the politics in the country, particularly when it is well-known that it is not possible to draw a line of distinction between the CPC, Peoples Liberation Army and the Chinese government.
In the context of former President of the Indian National Congress (INC) Rahul Gandhi hurling a “Surrender Modi” tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the midst of India-China stand off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, two contrasts strike the mind of the countrymen: the behaviour of the then and the present main Opposition party in similar situations. ONE. When India was at war with Pakistan in 1971 the then Jana Sangh President Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared that at this hour we are all with the government and there is only one leader of the country and that is the Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi. TWO. During the last 49 years much water has flown down the Ganga. Political situation in the country, too, has gone through many upheavals since then. The ruling INC then looked invincible. It is now as much weak an opposition as much comfortably strong is BJP-led NDA in power. Defence Minister in Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government George Fernandes had once declared that China is country’s enemy No. 1. Many people, then, may not have agreed with him calling his assessment as exaggerated. They then seemed to believe that it was Pakistan and not China which deserved this position. The developments in Doklam in 2017 and now in June 2020 in Galwan (Ladakh) have proved George right, though Pakistan continues to be hands in glove with China against India. When Shri Narendra Modi took over as the country’s Prime Minister in May 2014, he tried to mend fences with country’s neighbours, including China and Pakistan. But the perfidious nature ingrained in the very blood of both these countries remains the same. Both seemed to interpret this measure as a sign of weakness of the Modi government newly in power. In 2020 China seems to be living in the dreams of 1962 ignoring the present day realities. Today it is 1962 neither for China nor for India. Today it is not the Mao and Zhou Enlai duo calling the shots in China. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who then held the key to India’s destiny is no more. What is common then and now is that the present Chinese leadership continues to be as treacherous as it was 58 years back. To stab its friends from the back is not something new for China. It has done so with India not just once but many times. Each time in the past when China threatened India on the borders, it was an INC government at the Centre. But this time when China again dared to pose a similar challenge to India, it found, to its dismay, that the present BJP-led NDA government at the Centre with Shri Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs was quite the opposite and not willing to put up with any non-sense at the border under any circumstances. To both China and Pakistan he has proved to be a hard nut to crack. To the world PM Modi has proved to be a committed and honest friend but at the same time, in the words of US President Ronald Trump, a hard task master when it comes to promoting and protecting India’s interests. Modi Government has given the brave and patriotic Indian Army a free hand — a never before — to deal with the situation as it develops at the border. Now the army has not to look back towards the government for orders whether or not to use the gun in their hands to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. But this time the stand of the INC, the country’s oldest political party, then headed by Shri Rahul Gandhi during the Uri and Pulwama attacks by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists in J&K has bewildered the nation. It is not in tune with the public sentiment. Post-Uri the Indian Army retaliated by mounting a surgical strike on Pakistan. When Pakistan aided and abetted terrorists repeated Pulwama killing India’s 40 patriotic army men, India taught a lesson to Pakistan by launching Balakot operation inside Pakistan destroying terror training camps killing over two hundred terrorists. Initially Pakistan denied India’s claims and the Congress leadership wanted proof. This made headlines in the Pakistani print and electronic media. Pakistan government used the statements of INC leaders to strengthen its case against India in various national and international forums. Later, Pakistan admitted the fact of both the surgical strike and Balakot operation. It was Modi government’s diplomatic sagacity that Pakistan got isolated in the world community and many countries like USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Israel and others recognized India’s right to strike back to defend herself from cross border terrorism. In the year 2008 during UPA-1 INC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Communist Party of China (CPC), the only political party there, for exchanging high level information and cooperation between the two political parties. MoU provided for the two parties an “opportunity to consult each other on important bilateral, regional and international developments”. The MoU was signed in the presence of the INC President Smt. Sonia Gandhi by her son Rahul Gandhi, the then Congress General Secretary and on China side by none other than Xi Jinping who was then the Chinese Vice-President and who is now the President of the Republic of China. The MOU signed by INC with CPC has never been made public, not even to the members of the party. Do Congressmen and people of India have no right to know the contents of the MOU as it concerns the whole country? Congress wants transparency on every other matter in government and other political parties. But when it comes unto its own self, it wishes to keep itself behind iron curtains of secrecy like China. It is also worth recalling that during the stand-off on Doklam in 2017 Shri Rahul Gandhi had met the Chinese Ambassador to India in Delhi. It is not clear whether his visit was in pursuance of the MoU. The stand-off ultimately paved the way to China’s withdrawal from the intruded territory. In 2008 Smt Sonia Gandhi visited Beijing alongwith her son Rahul Gandhi, daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, son-in-law Robert Vadra and their two children to attend the opening of the Olympic Games. Surprisingly, the PM Dr. Manmohan Singh himself or any other minister in government was not invited for this official function. By inviting only the Gandhi family, it appears, China too has come to recognize that Congress party stands squeezed into a family outfit where all others don’t matter. A year before, Smt. Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi had also led a delegation of the Congress party to China. On June 15-16, 2020 China again dared to pursue its expanshionist policy at Galwan (Ladakh). In the skirmishes at the border India lost 20 of its brave soldiers including an officer of the Colonel rank. But it was not a one-sided affair. Indian soldiers killed about 43 Chinese soldiers including some officers. Chinese mouth-piece the Global Times did admit its losses, including that of its officers, but did not disclose the exact numbers. The most inhuman face of China laid bare when reports came in that it cremated its soldiers secretly without informing the families of those who died in clash with India. Informing bereaved families would have exposed the fact of China’s great loss of men. Prime Minister Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, left China — and Pakistan too — know in no uncertain terms that India would not compromise on even an inch of her territory and was prepared for any eventuality come what may. Many countries like USA, Japan, UK and Australia supported India’s fight against China’s expanshionist policy. After a number of meetings between India and China’s military brass, China had to agree to withdraw its military presence two kilometers from the LAC. This victory of India’s right stand took place two days after Prime Minister Narender Modi made a surprise visit to the border post in Ladakh where clashes had taken place between Indian and Chinese forces. He was accompanied by the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Indian Army. He met and patted the injured soldiers who were recuperating at the Army Hospital. The brave Indian soldiers told the PM that they were anxious to be fit soon to once again take on China on the front. This visit heightened the morale of the soldiers on the border front. Simultaneously it sent out a message to both China and Pakistan that India could not be cowed down by threats. Pakistan felt so much rattled that on that very day PM Imran Khan immediately called a meeting of its security group. PM Modi visited the border posts at a high altitude of more than 11000 feet at the heat of the moment when armies of the two sides were standing eye to eye to strike the enemy at any moment. Retd. Major-General S. K. Sinha appreciated Shri Modi’s visit saying that a visit to the high altitude required acclimatizing of the person. He recalled when he was posted to this place, he was shut up in a military rest house for a weak where he was kept confined to a room for a week to get acclimatized. He was not allowed to come out of his room and everything he needed was provided in the room itself. The BJP-led NDA governments can rightly feel proud that under their tutelage India had never compromised on even a single inch of territory during their tenure. It was under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that India lost over 38,000 square kilometer of territory to China in 1962. Further, a media report (IANS) on May 28, 2020 has stated that China had occupied 640 Sq Km of Indian Territory in Eastern Ladakh during the second term of the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In 2013, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board under the National Security Council of the UPA government. After a visit to the region he informed the government that the People''s Liberation Army (PLA) patrol had set a new Line of Actual Control, thus occupying 640 sq km of Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh. Yet Manmohan government kept quiet. In one of his tweets, former INC President Rahul Gandhi called PM as “Surrender Modi”. It looks that the Nehru-Gandhi scion is poor of Indian history, even the recent one. Besides surrendering over 38,000 sq. Kms Indian territory of Aksai Chin in Ladakh to China in 1962 when Pandit Nehru was the PM, Congress PMs in 1966 and 1972 had surrendered back to Pakistan those parts of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir which Indian forces had liberated during 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan. They presented to Pakistan on a platter those parts of Kashmir which rightly belong to India and which had been liberated in a war at great sacrifice of our officers and men of the patriotic Indian army. When these areas were part of J&K why were these handed over back to Pakistan? This act is a betrayal of a number of unanimous resolutions passed in Parliament stressing that PoK rightly belonged to India? We had since 1948 been telling the world that the only dispute to be resolved with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue is the vacation of PoK by Pak. The only complete and real victories India recorded against both Pakistan and China were during the reign of BJP-led NDA rule. In 1999 late Shri Atal Bihari government recovered from Pakistan every inch of Indian territory in Kargil. In 2017 and 2020 NDA government led by Shri Narendra Modi made China vacate every inch of land in Doklam and Ladakh. Because of these hard facts Shri Rahul Gandhi’s taunt of “Surrender Modi” boomerang as “Surrender Congress”. *** Writer is a Delhi-based political analyst and commentator.
