Asserting that India remains stuck in the assembly stage rather than actual manufacturing, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the country cannot truly compete with China unless it becomes self-reliant in production.
Gandhi, in a detailed post on X, said that despite the tall claims of the Centre’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, the ground reality reveals a dependency on imported parts, especially from China. Citing an example, he said nearly 80 per cent of components in most televisions manufactured in India are sourced from China.
“From iPhones to TVs – the parts come from abroad; we just put them together,” the Congress MP wrote.
“In the name of ‘Make in India’, we are merely assembling, not truly manufacturing.”
He pointed to the structural barriers that are keeping small-scale entrepreneurs from entering manufacturing. “There’s neither policy nor support. On the contrary, there are heavy taxes and the monopolies of select corporates that have gripped the country’s industry,” he said.
Gandhi underlined that without transforming the base of India’s production capacity, rhetoric about job creation and economic growth will remain hollow.
“Until India becomes self-reliant in production, talks of jobs, growth, and ‘Make in India’ will remain mere speeches,” he said, calling for a “ground-level change” to build a manufacturing ecosystem that can rival China’s.
The former Congress president has long been critical of the Modi government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ programme. During the winter session of Parliament last year, he stated that the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP had actually declined — from 15.3 per cent in 2014 to just 12.6 per cent, the lowest in six decades.
He also highlighted China’s lead in sectors like batteries, motors, robotics, and optics. “China has been working on this for 10 years — and is at least a decade ahead of us,” Gandhi warned.
But he stressed that the gap could still be bridged with the right strategy. “Although China is 10 years ahead, we can catch up – with the right vision,” he posted.
He proposed that an INDIA bloc government would realign education, tap into domain expertise, decentralise finance, and strategically rework trade and foreign policies.
According to him, this was not only about jobs and economic growth, but also national security.
“In a world where wars are fought between industrial systems, our reliance on Chinese imports like batteries and motors puts us at serious risk.”
Gandhi urged India to seize emerging opportunities in sectors like renewable energy, electric mobility, and artificial intelligence, and become a core player in the coming industrial revolution.
“Jobs come from production. Make in India has failed to revive it. But if we act now, we can still give our youth hope for the future.”