In a trenchant attack on the Modi government and its foreign and domestic policies, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi Wednesday took to the floor of parliament to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making a "massive blunder" in its stance on China, saying this "posed a very serious threat to the Indian nation".

 Gandhi said the biggest mistake the Modi government had made was that "you have brought Pakistan and China together."

"It is very clear that the Chinese and Pakistanis are planning..... Look at the weapons they are buying, look at the way they are talking," Gandhi pointed out, warning the government that "If anything happens, you will be solely responsible". 

"The strategic goal of India should have been to keep China and Pakistan separate. But what you have done is to bring them together. Do not underestimate what we are facing. This is a serious threat to India," he said, adding that we made a "huge strategic mistake" in Jammu and Kashmir, possibly referring to the removal of the constitutionally-guaranteed 'special status' of the erstwhile state over two years ago and making it a federally administered territory.  

The Congress MP, whose mother Sonia Gandhi is the party president, also claimed that India didn't have a guest for this year's Republic Day parade on January 26, as is the custom,  because the country is "completely isolated and surrounded". 

"We are surrounded in Nepal, Afghanistan, China," he said, without elaboration, calling it "the single biggest crime against the people of India".

We have made a massive blunder," he charged, saying China has a plan and a clear vision of what it wants to do (in South Asia).

In one of his strongest speeches to date, Gandhi - whose father, grandmother and great grandfather were all prime ministers of India - pleaded with the government that it should listen to the opposition and not behave like an imperious "king emperor".

"You might not think that we have the understanding but we do. Listen to us and use us", Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha, the parliament's lower house, in his reply to the President's address, which sets out the government policies, at the start of the Budget Session. 

Not just external threats, Gandhi also said that the country has been "weakened" and "our institutions are under attack", NDTV reported. 

Saying the country was divided, Gandhi declared: "There are now two distinct Indias, he said, one for the rich and the other for the poor, adding, "The gap between the two is growing."

((SAM)