Sushma Swaraj buckled under China pressure: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday criticised external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, saying that the minister had “buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power”.

Mr Gandhi’s remarks on Twitter comes a day after Ms Swaraj informed Parliament that the stand-off between Indian and Chinese forces in Doklam was sorted out by “diplomatic maturity without losing any ground” and that status quo in the region was being maintained.

In his Tweet, Mr Gandhi remarked that it was “amazing how a lady like Sushmaji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolu-te subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border”.

However, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju also took to Twitter and reacted to Mr Gandhi’s comments, “This tweet is one classic example of how Rahul Gandhiji is not only ignorant of facts but depicts how he takes political soundbites as more important than national interest. Don’t some senior Congress Ex-Ministers brief him about sensitivities?”

In his tweet, Mr Gandhi also tagged a media report about US Congresswoman Ann Wagner claiming that China had “quietly resumed” its operations in the Doklam region. The US Congresswoman had also stated that neither India nor Bhutan tried to stall China’s activities in the Doklam region. However, New Delhi had rejected these claims.

Ms Swaraj had also informed the Lok Sabha that the main objective of the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan a few weeks ago was aimed at ensuring that there was mutual comfort, mutual understanding and mutual trust between the two leaders. All these three objectives, Ms Swaraj added, had been achieved.

Ms Wagner had made these claims during a hearing of the Congress’ US House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee for Asia and the Pacific last week.