Congress leader Rahul Gandhi continued his attack on the government (File)

New Delhi:

An unyielding Rahul Gandhi launched another attack on the government on Sunday, accusing it of “institutionalised lies” and warning that “India will pay the price” for the Narendra Modi administration’s poor handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and the border stand-off with China.

This morning Mr Gandhi tweeted: “BJP has institutionalised lies. 1. Covid19 by restricting testing and misreporting deaths. 2. GDP by using a new calculation method. 3. Chinese aggression by frightening the media. The illusion will break soon and India will pay the price”.

He also attached a Washington Post article titled: “As India skyrockets past 1 million coronavirus cases, a mystery surrounds death toll”.

A tenacious critic of the government, Mr Gandhi has stepped up his tweets over the past weeks and months, particularly after the novel coronavirus pandemic struck India.

The Wayanad MP then increased the frequency and vigour of his attacks last month, following Chinese intrusion into Indian territory and the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in Ladakh.

On Saturday he warned that India would pay “for the government’s cowardice” over the China stand-off, suggesting it was following an ill-advised policy of appeasement.  This followed last month’s criticism of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in which he claimed the government was hiding behind “paid media”.

Last week Mr Gandhi took on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who said India was in a “good position” to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Days later, India recorded over 10 lakh COVID-19 cases and will likely cross 11 lakh by Tuesday.

Mr Gandhi has also been critical of the government’s handling of the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown, pointing out that experts’ call to inject cash into the hands of the poorest sections of society – those most affected by the crisis – remained unheeded.

“So today, you have a country which is economically in trouble, trouble as far as foreign policy is concerned, in trouble with its neighbours and that’s why the Chinese have decided that this is possibly this time to act. And that is why they have acted,” he summed up yesterday, in a tweet explaining why, according to him, China had acted aggressively in Ladakh.