'Dead economy' remark: Kiren Rijiju's 'not a child' jibe at Rahul Gandhi; calls out 'anti-India' stance

NEW DELHI: Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday pulled up Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for attacking the government over Donald Trump 's "dead economy" remarks and urged him to recognise that he is "not a child" and should act accordingly.

Rijuju accused the leader of opposition of taking a "anti-India" stance after he echoed Trump's remarks and claimed that " Indian economy is dead" and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "killed" it.

While talking to reporters, the Union minister said, "Not only people from the Government, but even members of the Opposition have said that what Rahul Gandhi is saying is anti-India. Rahul Gandhi should understand that he is not a child, and this is expected from an Opposition leader to maintain the dignity of the country."

"Rahul Gandhi is constantly threatening constitutional institutions. This is a conspiracy to weaken democracy... Even a few of the Opposition leaders have started opposing Rahul Gandhi internally. People are saying that Rahul is playing a dirty game and wants to tarnish the image of the country," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, Rahul listed five reasons which, according to him, led to the decline of the world's fourth-largest economy.

"The Adani-Modi partnership; Demonetisation and a flawed GST; A failed 'Assemble in India' initiative; MSMEs wiped out; Farmers crushed," Rahul said in a social media post on X.

“Modi has destroyed the future of India’s youth because there are no jobs,” he added.

"Everybody knows this except PM Modi and the Finance Minister. It is a dead economy. I am glad that the US President has stated facts... The entire world knows that BJP has ended the Indian economy to help Adani," Rahul said.

This comes after Trump took a sharp jab at India and Russia, suggesting that the two nations could "take their dead economies down together."

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, "I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India — their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together."

Earlier, Trump announced a 25% tariff on all goods imported from India, along with an unspecified penalty, from August 1 after the two countries failed to reach an interim trade deal, triggering nervousness among exporters.