China would have been 'thrown out in 15 minutes' if Congress was in power: Rahul Gandhi

Sirsi, Oct 06: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday made a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling him coward while addressing a gathering in Haryana.

He also claimed that China had "dared to enter India and kill our soldiers" as Modi has "weakened" the country.

"The coward PM says that no one has taken our land. Today, there is only one country in the world whose land has been taken by another country. And PM calls himself a 'deshbhakt'. If we were in power we would've thrown out China in less than 15 mins," Rahul Gandhi said addressing tractor rally in Haryana.

Further targeting the government over the nearly five-month-long military standoff in eastern Ladakh, Gandhi said during the led UPA''s rule, "China would not dare to take a step inside our territory", adding had UPA been in power, "we would have evicted and thrown out China and it would not have taken 15 minutes to do so".

The former Congress president, who reached here from Pehowa to address his final public gathering as part of his ''Kheti Bachao Yatra'', said none of the policies of the Modi government during the last six years were meant to benefit the poor, farmers or labourers.

"Modi said China has not entered Indian territory. Then how were our 20 jawans killed? Who killed them?" he asked while addressing a gathering at Anaj Mandi here late this evening.

"There is only one nation in the entire world whose land has been usurped and that is India and they call themselves patriots. The prime minister calls himself ''desh bhakt'' (patriot) and the whole country knows that China''s forces are inside our territory, what kind of patriot he is?" said Gandhi.

The government had earlier termed as "mischievous interpretation" the Congress''s claims that China had occupied Indian territory in eastern Ladakh region.

Continuing his attack, Gandhi said, "China came inside our territory four months back and how much time will it take to throw them out. I feel till the time the UPA government is not formed, China will continue to occupy the territory, but the day our government we will throw them out," adding "Our Army, Air Force would have pushed them back by 100 km."

He claimed that the prime minister does not realise the power of the country, its farmers and labourers and is only concerned about his image.

"He clicks photos and you must have seen the empty tunnel he is waving (referring to inauguration of Atal tunnel a few days ago," he said.

Gandhi, who held a series of tractor rallies in Punjab since Sunday to protest the Centre''s new farm laws, drove a tractor to Haryana, where he held two gatherings, the previous one being in Pehowa.

Senior Congress leaders including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kiran Choudhary, Ajay Singh Yadav and Deepender Singh Hooda also accompanied Gandhi during his programmes in Haryana.

The Haryana leg of his tractor rally got delayed by more than two hours after state authorities stopped a large number of Congress workers from Punjab who were accompanying him from Patiala to the inter-state border.

However, later Gandhi along with few Congress leaders was allowed to enter Haryana, where a large number of party workers accompanied him during his tractor rally.