London: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told an audience of Indian and British journalists in London that Indian democracy is under threat from within India due to the policies of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Gandhi made the comments during an interaction with the Indian Journalists’ Association Sunday, the latest event during his whirlwind tour of the UK.
“The structures of our democracy are under brutal attack,” Gandhi said.
He added: “The media, the judiciary, parliament, all (are) under attack. We are fighting institutional structures. RSS and BJP have taken over institutions that are supposed to remain neutral.”
Gandhi said his journey covering the length of India — the Bharat Jodo Yatra — had been prompted and inspired by his desire to take his message to the people of India, as many figures had done throughout Indian history.
“Gandhiji’s is the most remembered and the most effective yatra in recent memory. But the idea of a yatra is a much older idea in India. It’s in the DNA of our country, which includes suffering a little bit of pain and doing it over a long distance and time. The idea is discovering the country, listening to the voice of the country; understanding yourself, introspecting, doing something that is little difficult, painful. It’s embedded in our historical tradition. Guru Nanak ji, Buddha Mahavir have walked across the country. BJP also had Rath Yatra, there is a philosophical difference between these two yatras. It sort of hits the ideological difference between us and the BJP. Centre of that yatra was a rath, which is a symbol of ‘king’. Ours was mobilising and embracing people. There was an equal mobilisation of people. There was no rath, there was no talking down to people.”
Gandhi also said the yatra was his way of “expressing” his voice when the government was suppressing voices across the socio-political spectrum.
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‘Journalists Who Toe The Govt Line Are Rewarded’
Citing the recent tax ‘surveys’ at the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai, Rahul Gandhi said: “With suppression of voice, an example is the BBC. But the BBC is just one element. The BBC has found out just now but it has been going on in India for the past nine years. Non-stop. Everybody knows that. Journalists are intimidated, they are attacked, they are threatened and journalists who toe the line of the government are rewarded. It’s part of a pattern and I don’t expect anything different. This is the new idea of India.”
He said that efforts were underway to unite the wider opposition in India to collectively take on the power of the ruling BJP.
Gandhi also took questions on the recent controversies surrounding billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani.
“Mr. Adani seems to win every auction he takes part in. He doesn’t need any experience in the business. For example, he will take over the most profitable airports in the country, having never worked in the airport industry,” he said.
Asked about the economic potential of the discovery of huge lithium deposits in Jammu and Kashmir, and who would have the opportunity to extract it, Gandhi stated: “His name begins with ‘A’.”
He added: “BJP is trying to distract the population and hand over India’s wealth to 4-5 people.”
Gandhi’s comments at the event follow similar criticism of the BJP and the central government by him during an address to his alma mater, Cambridge University, earlier this week, during which he suggested that he, along with other opposition figures, had been placed “under surveillance”.
Asked why he chose to criticise India in a foreign land, Gandhi said: “Mr. Modi himself has said that nothing has been done in the last 60-70 years. He has insulted every Indian and their grandparents by saying that India has lost a decade, and he said all this on a foreign soil.”