Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that Narendra Modi “fabricated a fake strongman image” to come to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In a tweet shared today morning, Rahul said PM Modi’s strongman image is ‘now India’s biggest weakness’.

“PM fabricated a fake strongman image to come to power. It was his biggest strength. It is now India’s biggest weakness,” Rahul tweeted as he shared a video message where in he referred to the recent clashes with China in Ladakh.

“What is China’s strategic and tactical game plan? It is simply not a border issue. The worry I have is that the Chinese are sitting in our territory today. Chinese don’t do anything without thinking about it strategically,” he said.

“In their mind, they have mapped out the world and they are trying to shape the world. That’s the scale of what they are doing. That’s what Gwadar is, that is what belt and road is. It is a restructuring of the planet. So when you are thinking about the Chinese you have to understand that is the level at which they are thinking,” he said in the nearly two-minute video.

Rahul said Chinese are trying to improve their position at the tactical level whether in Galwan, Demchok or Pangong Lake. “They are disturbed by our highway, they want to make our highway redundant. And if they are thinking on a larger scale, they want to do something with Pakistan in Kashmir,” he said.

Attacking PM Modi further, he said that Chinese understand that in order for Narendra Modi to be an effective politician, he has to protect the idea of “56 inch (chest)” and this is the idea that Chinese are attacking.

“They are basically telling Mr Narendra Modi that ‘if you do not say what we are saying we will destroy the idea of the Narendra Modi as a strong leader’,” Rahul said.

“Now the question is how will he (the Prime Minister) react… will he say I will take you on and say “I am the PM. I do not care about my image”…or he will succumb,” he said.

“The worry I have is that PM has succumbed… that the Chinese are sitting in our territory today and PM has publicly said that they are not,” Rahul added.

The former Congress president said that for him, it indicates that PM Modi is worried about his image.

“If he allows the Chinese to understand that they can manipulate him, the Indian Prime Minister will no longer be working for the country,” he said.