NEW DELHI: Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju hit back at Rahul Gandhi with a suggestion that as “the leader of the opposition (in Lok Sabha), he should not say anything anti-national.” Reiterating his attack of “speaking language of Pakistan,” Rijiju questioned Rahul’s intentions behind attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over foreign policy, pointing out that ‘opposition also has a role in doing good work for the country.”“Now you blame the prime minister for foreign policy, instead of uniting the country, you speak against the Prime Minister of the country. What does the country gain from this? Opposition does not mean abusing the country. The opposition also has a role in doing good work for the country. When it comes to foreign policy, we should not be divided,” Rijiju said.During the Congress government, we did not attack the prime minister separately on foreign policy. The way Rahul Gandhi tries to mislead people on foreign policy by speaking the language of Pakistan, it harms the country. We will suggest to him that as the leader of the opposition, he should not say anything anti-national,” he added.Talking about the upcoming Parliament session, Rijiju said, “Parliament is about to begin. Whatever issue comes up in Parliament, we will listen to it. Yesterday I had a very good meeting with Kharge ji and Rahul ji. I keep having regular meetings with leaders of other opposition parties. Being a parliamentary minister, it is my responsibility to maintain coordination with everyone. But whatever the issue is, we can resolve it only by discussing. Nothing will be achieved by creating a ruckus,” he said.Rahul Gandhi criticized external affairs minister S Jaishankar, saying that he is “running a full-blown circus aimed at destroying India’s foreign policy”.“I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full-blown circus aimed at destroying India’s foreign policy,” Gandhi had said.This came after Jaishankar appraised China over improved ties with India, especially in the past nine months. However, he had pressed upon the need to address remaining issues, including full de-escalation. He had also highlighted the importance of easing trade restrictions and boosting people-to-people exchanges.
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