After preliminary reports that China carried out a disinformation campaign to discredit Rafale fighter jets employed during Operation Sindoor, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has upped its attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The ruling party accused him of continuously questioning Indian military capabilities and indirectly advertizing Chinese defense technology.
Amit Malviya, head of the BJP's IT and communications cell, jumped onto X (formerly Twitter) to give a stinging retort.
"Rahul Gandhi's interesting fascination with Chinese military technology. Again and again, Rahul Gandhi has been seen batting for Chinese military equipment - both in and out of Parliament," Malviya posted.
Supporting his claim with instances, Malviya mentioned how Gandhi's observation during a 2021 Lok Sabha session asked how Indian soldiers were not being used to adopt surveillance drones like those employed by the Chinese army, the PLA, in the Ladakh standoff.
"In Lok Sabha (2021), he (Rahul Gandhi) asked why Indian troops were not employing Chinese-style spy drones, bizarrely praising PLA's strategy during Ladakh standoff," Malviya wrote.
He also cited comments made at the occasion of an academic conference in London in 2023, where Gandhi was reportedly praising China's development in military technology.
"At a London academic interface (2023), he asserted China is winning the 'technology race' and asked India to copy Chinese military advancements, including drone warfare," Malviya told us.
In another example, Malviya referred to a closed-door meeting with defence experts in 2022 when Gandhi is stated to have pressed for employing tactics inspired by China's use of drones along border disputes.
"Defence 'experts' fear being pushed into a corner in a 2022 closed-door meeting, Rahul reportedly urged India to 'look at options' like China's tactical deployment of defence drones along the border," he said.
Malviya continued, "Whether it's sabotaging India's chances or hyping up enemy prototypes, Rahul Gandhi has a habit of finding himself on the wrong end of the patriotic debate."
BJP's new salvo against the Congress MP follows Associated Press (AP) reporting that Chinese diplomatic posts had been actively engaged in questioning the effectiveness of French-made Rafale fighter jets. The jets had gained fame in aerial battles between India and Pakistan in May. The AP news story quoted French defense and intelligence estimates that Beijing's campaign was designed to discredit the reputation and international market prospects of the Rafale aircraft.
"Sales of Rafales and other weapons are high-stakes business for France's defense sector and assist efforts by the French government to tighten relations with other countries, including in Asia where China is emerging as the region's dominant power," the AP report noted.
This prompted Congress spokesman Pooja Tripathi to brush aside BJP's allegations as ironic.
"Irony died a thousand deaths and BJP is blaming us for taking sides with Chinese interests. In 2022, Rahul Gandhi on the Parliament floor said the biggest blunder we can commit is driving Pakistan into China's arms and then we have to battle on two fronts," she added.
Tripathi also referred to recent reports by military officials regarding Chinese intelligence activities.
"An Army General is telling us that China was giving real-time inputs. This is a serious threat to strategic military intelligence. These are the questions the government must respond to. That's why we are calling for a special session of the Parliament. Rahul Gandhi does not govern the country. They must respond to questions," she said.
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