Congress calls Jaishankar 'failed' foreign minister, slams remarks on China

The Congress on Wednesday hit out at External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar calling him a failed minister and alleging that his remarks on the China issue have demeaned the valour of Indias armed forcesCongress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also alleged that foreign policy has been reduced to photoops and a chestthumping exercise and is being used to secure contracts for a businessmanShe claimed that the minister had said that we are the smaller economy and China is the bigger economy and we cannot go and pick a fight with themWhat exactly does he mean by saying this Is he telling us that we are not capable of protecting our territorial sovereignty she saidWhat he is trying to do by saying this is essentially break and shake the confidence of our Indian economy and demean the valour of our armed forces This is one of the most blasphemous statements made by any foreign minister she told reportersOn Jaishankars reported remark that he has been the longestserving Indian Ambassador in China the Congress said in that capacity will he tell when the status along the Line of Actual Control will be restored to the April 2020 positionAlso Read We accept their leadership Sharad Pawar on Kharges remark that Congressled alliance will come to powerWhy do the prime minister and you stay quiet on China Why have we increased the trade deficit to 100 USD with China and we are almost funding the Chinese Army to do the incursions that they do she saidAs Indias longestserving Ambassador to China what do you have to say on Chinese aggression at the border she askedShe also criticised the minister for targeting the Congressled governments over their China policy saying You can keep attacking your political opponents but do not do this at the cost of our national security some things are sacrosanctThe Congress spokesperson also listed several steps taken by the UPA government to strengthen border infrastructure including sanctioning of a 50000 strong two new mountain divisions and stationing armoured units in Ladakh and ArunachalForeign policy is supposed to further the interests of this country Foreign policy is not supposed to be a tool to manage and allocated projects from foreign countries to one business group that is Adani the Congress leader allegedShrinate also spoke of reported remarks of Jaishankars father K Subrahmanyam who she said had written in 2002 after the Gujarat riots that religion has been attacked and those who did not save innocent citizens are Asuras demonsYou may attack anyone but you must listen to the words of the elderly who have wisdom and experience You should listen to your father He may be old but has wisdom and experience and you should listen to him she saidShe claimed that the border with China was largely silent for 50 years after 1967 barring an incident in 1987 and asked why are there so many multiple incursions happening nowShe claimed the UPA government had in 2006 adopted the current active border infra policy and roads and tunnels actively marked were mostly planned by the Shyam Saran task force in 2006The construction of roads tunnels and high landing grounds for heavy aircraft began in 2008 and was largely completed by 2014 she claimedThe Modi government has repeatedly accused the previous Congressled governments of deliberately not working on infrastructure in the border areasThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever