Trump's right on 'dead economy', remarks Rahul Gandhi, blames PM Modi

NEW DELHI: Congress neta Rahul Gandhi Thursday said US President Donald Trump has stated a fact that India has a "dead economy", asserting that the BJP govt is running the country to the ground because PM Narendra Modi "works for just one person, Adani".

Claiming there is "total confusion", Rahul said the Modi govt has destroyed the economic policy, foreign policy and defence policy of India, and Modi "does not know how to run the country".

"Modi works for only one person - Adani. They have destroyed all small businesses. You will see, this (Indo-US trade) deal will happen, and Trump will define how this deal is done, and Modi will do as Trump dictates," he said.

Speaking to reporters amid the row over Trump's imposition of tariffs, Rahul said there is no question the "Indian economy is a dead economy, the entire world knows it, except the PM and the finance minister". He quipped, "Am glad that President Trump has stated a fact."

He said, "The Indian economy is dead, Modi killed it", mentioning among reasons the "Adani-Modi partnership, demonetisation and flawed GST".

Suggesting that Trump's tariffs had to be seen in conjunction with other geo-political issues, Rahul said India's "genius foreign policy" can be gauged from the fact that "while the US is abusing India, China is after you", and no country condemned Pakistan for the Pahalgam terror attack when multi-party delegations went across the world. He said the PM did not name Trump and China (in Parliament), and could not acknowledge that no country had condemned Pakistan while "Trump is having lunch with Pakistan's military chief who is behind the Pahalgam attack". "And they say it is a big success. What success?" he jibed.

Rahul said the key questions was why Modi was unable to respond to Trump's claim, made over 30-odd times, that he forced the ceasefire, that India lost five planes, and is now saying India will pay 25% tariffs.