Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Prime Minister over the ongoing border conflict with China in Ladakh, tweeting that Narendra Modi "is actually Surender Modi". The former Congress president referred to an article published in Japan Times, which claimed that India's "policy of appeasement" has failed to deter China from adopting an aggressive approach towards India. The article stated that Modi's vision was clouded by "naive hope that, by appeasing China, he could reset the bilateral relationship and weaken China’s ties with Pakistan."