Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he was fighting an ideological battle, and was not driven by an ambition to become the prime minister. He was interacting with the members of the Indian Journalists Association in London. "I don’t have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come in me after 2014. I realised that there’s a risk to Indian state, to Indian way of doing things and I’m defending that,” Hindustan Times reported Gandhi as stating. The president of the Congress party also claimed that, come 2019, the electoral battle would boil down to BJP on one side and the opposition on the other.
On the Vijay Mallya issue, Gandhi said Indian prisons were "difficult places" but fugitives like the former should not be treated differently. "Before Mallya left India, he met senior BJP leaders, that is documented. I won't name them," he said. "Indian prisons are pretty decent as far as Mallya is concerned. Justice should be the same for Indian people."
Mallya last month appeared before a court in London where both defence and prosecution presented clarifications on Barrack 12 at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where Mallya is to be held post-extradition. Judge Emma Arbuthnot asked the Indian authorities to submit within three weeks a video of the Barrack 12 of the Arthur Road Jail. Fugitive liquor baron Mallya is currently fighting extradition to India on fraud and money laundering charges worth an estimated Rs 9,000 crores.
Gandhi said the Modi government is pretty lenient to Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who have defrauded Indian banks. "Punjab National Bank scam accused Nirav Modi took Rs 35,000 crores and Chokshi defrauded the banks. The question is job creation. How many jobs did Nirav Modi create?" Gandhi asked. The Congress president said, "there is a relationship between Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and the prime minister. No action is taken against them." Jewellery designer Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems, have allegedly defrauded state-run Punjab National Bank of over Rs 13,000 crore.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have registered cases of alleged fraud against them. Rahul Gandhi attacked the Modi government and said it "absolutely and completely lacked any strategy as far as India's foreign policy is concerned".
"The prime minister makes a particular statement in Nepal and in a couple of months there is a complete U-turn. He has not been able to handle the relationship with Nepal, Afghanistan or China."
"A devastating example is that prime minister went to Afghanistan and on his way back he went to Pakistan for a wedding, sending a completely wrong message to Afghanistan. Afghanistan keeps wondering what is going on," Gandhi said. Gandhi was referring to Prime Minister Modi's surprise visit to Pakistan on December 25, 2015, while returning from Afghanistan.
He said that Prime Minister Modi went to China but did not discuss Doklam issue. Gandhi said the prime minister is not taking feedback from the external affairs ministry.
"Why is Sushma Swaraj spending her time on sorting out visas? That is not the job of the foreign minister. That is the job of someone in the embassy. The job of the foreign minister is making foreign policy, holding discussions on strategy."
"Sushma Swaraj is not allowed to have discussions. She is extremely capable woman. I know her. I have served with her in committees. I have issues with her regarding her style. She is humiliated on every count. She is not taken by prime minister on his trips and you never see her in photographs with prime minister. Then you say the foreign policy is wrong," Gandhi, who is also a member of the parliamentary committee on external affairs, added.
-Inputs from PTI