Rahul Gandhi’s speech: From China inside Indian territory to Make in India ’failed’ jibe — Top quotes


Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition and Congress leader, launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi government over a host of issues related to Artificial Intelligence, Election Commission data, selection of Election Commissioners and China’s alleged transgression into India.

Gandhi’s remarks drew criticism from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accused Gandhi of “hypocrisy”.

Here’s a recap of what Rahul Gandhi said in Lok Sabha on Monday and how the BJP reacted:

Trump’s invitation PM Modi

Rahul Gandhi questioned on Monday why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not invited to attend the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20. Gandhi said that if there had been a robust system in place, the foreign minister need not have gone to the US to ‘seek’ invitations for the prime minister.

“When we talk to the United States, we would not send our foreign minister to invite our Prime Minister to his coronation…,” Gandhi said.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to Gandhi’s remarks and said, “The Leader of Opposition cannot make such serious unsubstantial statement. This is related to the relation between two countries and he is making an unverified statement about the invitation of the Prime Minister of our country…”

Rahul Gandhi replied saying, “I apologize for disturbing your peace of mind…”

Later, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also hit-back at Rahul Gandhi over his ‘Trump inauguration invite’ claim, and said that the PM does not attend such events.

““It is common knowledge that our PM does not attend such events. In fact, India’s generally represented by Special Envoys. Rahul Gandhi’s lies may be intended politically. But they damage the nation abroad,” said Jaishankar in a post on X.

Transparent selection of Election Commissioners

Rahul Gandhi said the rules around the selection of lection Commissioner have been changed.

“The Election Commissioner used to be chosen by the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice was removed from that committee. This is a question to the Prime Minister, why was the Chief Justice removed from the committee? Now in a few days, I’m going to go to the meeting. It will be PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and me, 2-1,” Gandhi said.

He said, “Just prior to the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the Election Commissioner was changed and two new Election Commissioners were placed. We know that the election dates were changed…”

Responding to Gandhi’s statement, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X, “Rahul Gandhi’s call for a transparent selection of Election Commissioners involving the Chief Justice of India is ironic, given that during Congress rule, appointments were made solely by the ruling government without any transparency.”

Biswa said, “If the Congress truly believed in democratic integrity, why didn’t they implement these reforms in their decades of power? This hypocrisy highlights their political posturing—preaching transparency now after years of opaque governance. The people of India can no longer be misled by such double standards. Practice what you preach before demanding trust.”

Make-in-India ‘failed’

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said the Prime Minister proposed the ‘Make in India’ program, “I think it was a good idea…but the result is right in front of you.”

Gandhi said, “Manufacturing fell from 15.3% of GDP in 2014 to 12.6% of GDP today, which is the lowest share of manufacturing in 60 years. I am not blaming the Prime Minister, it would not be fair to say that he did not try. I could say that the Prime Minister tried…but he failed…”

‘China inside India’s territory because…’

Rahul Gandhi quoted India’s Chief of Army Staff as saying that the Chinese are inside our territory. “This is a fact. The reason China is inside our territory is important…The reason China is sitting inside this country is because ‘Make in India’ has failed,” he said.

The Congress MP said the Army has contradicted the Prime Minister that China is sitting on 4000 sq km of our territory…”

To this, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said, “You will have to present the evidence of what you are speaking in the House.”

AI Data localisation

India lacks data that can be fed to an AI system, Rahul Gandhi said on Monday in Parliament asserting that data fuelled the emerging Artificial Intelligence technology. “People talk about AI, but it’s important to understand that AI on its own is absolutely meaningless, because AI operates on top of data,” the Congress leader said.

Rahul Gandhi said that without data, AI means nothing. “And if we look at data today, there is one thing which is very clear: Every single piece of data that comes out of the production system in the world, the data that was used to make this phone, the data that is used to make electric cars, the data that is used to make basically all electronics on the planet today, is owned by China.”

“And the consumption data is owned by the United States… China has at least a 10-year lead on India in this space. China has been working on batteries, robots, motors, optics for the last 10 years and we are behind…We would ensure that our banking system is not captured by 2-3 companies that basically do not allow you to build a production system,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Election Commision data on Maharashtra election

Rahul Gandhi also demanded data on the Maharashtra Assembly Elections from the Election Commission “so we can see where voters were added.” He alleged, “More voters were added in five months in Maharashtra than were added in five years.”

He said, “Between the Lok Sabha election, which the INDIA Alliance won, and the Vidhan Sabha election, the voting population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the voter roll of Maharashtra, meaning the entire population of Himachal Pradesh was added to voter rolls of Maharashtra.”

“Almost 70 lakh new voters suddenly arrived between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections,” Rahul Gandhi pointed out. “I am very confident that the Election Commission will not give us this information…,” he said.

Unemployment

Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi said,”…Even though we have grown, we’ve grown fast, growing slightly slower now but we are growing. A universal problem that we have faced is that we have not been able to tackle the problem of unemployment. Neither the UPA govt nor today’s NDA government has given a clear-cut answer to the youth of this country about employment.”

Destroy Ambedkar’s value

Rahul Gandhi said, “India needs to connect the values of the past. You talk about Sardar Patel ji but you destroy Sardar Patel ji’s values every day. You talk about Ambedkar ji but you destroy his values every day. You don’t talk about Nehru ji. You bow in front of Buddha but you destroy what he says. You have to be truthful to what you are and it is important that when you are giving a way forward to the nation there is clarity of purpose. There is no hatred, violence or anger because these things are destroying our country…My speech has been very polite, very kind. I thank the Prime Minister for coming and listening to it.”

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