Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Singh Thakur on Sunday raised doubts about Rahul Gandhi’s patriotism, and said a person “born to a foreigner cannot be a patriot”.
“Videshi mahila ke garbh se paida hua vyakti rashtrabhakt ho hi nahi sakta [A person born out of the womb of a foreigner woman can’t be a patriot],” Thakur said. She invoked Chanakya to say that only a son of the soil can protect their motherland.
Hitting out at Sonia Gandhi, the BJP MP from Bhopal said patriotism cannot be expected from someone who has citizenship of two nations. “If you have citizenship of two countries, how can you have any patriotic feelings?”
Thakur claimed the Congress party was devoid of moral, ethics and patriotism. “Congress should look within,” she added. “They don’t know how to speak.”
Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said Thakur has brought disgrace to the post of MPs. “She was also involved in a case of terrorism,” Dhanopia told NDTV. “Now she seems to have lost her mental cool. BJP should get her treated.”
Thakur’s comments as the Congress has raised questions about the government’s handling of the tension along the border with China.
Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he would address India’s national security problems. Gandhi’s question came after Modi in his “Mann Ki Baat” address praised Indian soldiers for giving “a befitting reply to those coveting our territories”, referring to the clash with China along the Line of Actual Control on June 15, in which 20 Indian soldiers died. Gandhi had also accused Modi of surrendering to the Chinese, labelling him “Surrender Modi”.
Twenty Indian soldiers were killed and 76 injured in a violent altercation with Chinese forces in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on the intervening night of June 15-June 16. The face-off between the two neighbouring countries was the worst instance of violence along the Line of Actual Control since 1975. There were several reports of Indian soldiers being attacked with iron rods and clubs and thrown into the freezing Galwan river. India also accused China of assembling a large number of troops along the Line of Actual Control.
However, even as India and China continued to speak of disengagement, satellite imagery and multiple news reports confirmed that the Chinese structures that led to the violent clash in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh were back.
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