PM going soft on China: Kharge

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of putting the country’s security at risk by “adopting a soft policy” towards China.

As a result, he said, China was settling 90 new villages on the Arunachal Pradesh border. “You are adopting the policy of ‘red salute’ instead of ‘red eye’ towards China,” he said.

Highlighting a news report titled “China building 90 villages along Arunachal Pradesh, 628 such villages already established”, published in The Tribune on Thursday, Kharge said the Modi government’s claims about the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ on the border were “exaggerated”.

“You have exaggerated claims on the Vibrant Villages Programme in Parliament. The truth is 90 per cent of the funds under the scheme remain unspent over the last two years,” the Congress chief said. He claimed the scheme was launched in February 2023 and of the Rs 4,800 crore allocated, only Rs 509 crore had been spent.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadhra also took on the government over its China policy, citing

The Tribune report.