- Thursday, September 19, 2024
The Congress leader said his party had to fight an election with bank accounts frozen. “I don’t know any democracy where that’s happened”
By: Shajil Kumar
LEADER of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has alleged that democracy in India for the last 10 years was broken, but now it is fighting back.
Rahul Gandhi made these remarks on Tuesday while talking to reporters at a news conference here at the National Press Club.
“I can say to you that Indian democracy for the last 10 years was broken. It’s fighting back, but it was broken,” Gandhi said.
“I have seen the government of Maharashtra just being taken away from us. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve watched it, as our legislators have been bought in and hooked off and suddenly became BJP legislators. So Indian democracy has been under attack, has been very badly weakened, and now it’s fighting back. And I’m confident that it’ll fight back,” Gandhi said.
“If you see the election results, does it give you more hope for a democracy in India?” he was asked.
“Yeah, I mean, it does. But it’s not good enough to say that the Indian voter is resilient and knowledgeable. Because the Indian voter is informed by a whole set of structures. So if we don’t have a level playing field, the voter might be very knowledgeable and resilient. It doesn’t really matter,” he said.
“We fought an election with our bank accounts frozen. I don’t know any democracy where that’s happened. Maybe that type of thing happened in Syria or used to happen in Iraq. But we literally sat during our election and spoke to our treasurer and he says, well, we have no money. Now, you can have a resilient voter. You still need to run campaigns. You still need to have conversations. You still need to have meetings,” he said.
“I’ve got 20-plus cases in me. I’m the only person in Indian history to get a prison sentence for defamation. We have a chief minister who’s in jail right now. So, mean, one way of saying it is, yes, the Indian voter is very resilient, and he stands like a rock. Absolutely, he does. But the Indian voter requires an architecture to work on, which is not there,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi continued with his attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Here’s a prime minister of a modern country in the 21st century telling people that I speak to God. I’m different than everybody else. You are biological people. I’m a non-biological person. I have a direct link to God. And that for us was a game over (for the prime minister during the elections). We knew that we had defeated the prime minister,” he said.
“And then the beautiful thing was the first thing he did when he walked into the Lok Sabha, he was sworn in. He took the Constitution of India, and he placed it in his head,” he added.
“So, it was an interesting paradox. On one hand, he’s destroying the Constitution. He’s attacking the democratic structure. And then the Indian people have forced him to put it in his head,” Gandhi said.
Foreign policy
Gandhi indicated that the Congress party is in alignment with the ruling BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on major foreign policy issues like the relationship with the US, no talks with Pakistan unless the flow of terrorism is stopped, concerns over extremist elements in Bangladesh and Israel.
Supporting Modi’s policies on Pakistan, Gandhi said, “Pakistan’s instigation of terrorism in our country is holding the two countries back. We are not going to accept Pakistan carrying out terror acts in our country. We’re just not going to accept it. And until they keep doing that, there’s going to be problems between us.”
He said “No” when asked if the Kashmir issue is holding the two South Asian nations away from a dialogue.
Responding to a question on the India-US relationship, Gandhi noted that it has bipartisan support in both countries.
“I don’t see a big diversion. I don’t see Modi is diverting very much from our approach with the US. I don’t see ourselves changing direction very much from what he’s doing. So, I see continuity there,” he said.
“I think…everybody does accept the fact that the India-US relationship is key for both countries,” he added.
Gandhi asserted that he did not want any role of the US in India’s internal affairs. It is for the people of India to decide.
“The fight for democracy in India is an Indian fight. With all due respect, it has nothing to do with anybody else. It’s our problem. And we’ll take care of it. We will make sure that democracy is secure,” he said.
“However, it’s important to understand that Indian democracy is more than just any normal democracy because of its size. If you’re talking about a democratic vision of the world, then Indian democracy has a large space in that vision. I think it’s important that the world sees Indian democracy as an asset, not just for India, but for the rest of the world. Advising the United States on how they should deal with Modi is not my preserve, it’s not my space,” Gandhi said.
“India has been standing with Israel recently in the Middle East. How would you change that?” he was asked.
“Look, I think what happened on the 7th of October was absolutely wrong. But, I also think what Israel did and is doing, bombing innocent civilians, and killing women and children, is absolutely wrong and should not be allowed to continue. I’m against violence of any kind. And certainly, the scale of violence, I actually think, is harming Israel. It’s harming Israel more than it’s helping them,” Gandhi said.
Chinese occupation
The Leader of the Opposition was critical of Modi’s handling of China. “Do you think under Modi that India has managed the US-China competition well?” he was asked.
“Well, if you call having Chinese troops in 4,000 square kilometres of our territory handling something well, then maybe. We’ve got Chinese troops occupying land the size of Delhi in Ladakh. I think that’s a disaster. Media doesn’t like to write about it,” he said.
“How would America react if a neighbour occupied 4,000 square kilometres of your territory? Would any president be able to get away with saying that he’s handled that well? So, I don’t think Modi’s handled China well. I think there’s no reason Chinese troops should be sitting in our territory,” Gandhi said.
Responding to a question on Bangladesh, Gandhi said “There are concerns in India about extremist elements in Bangladesh and we share some of those concerns.”
“However, I’m confident that things will stabilise in Bangladesh and that we would be able to have a relationship with the current government or any other government after that,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi had a meeting with a group of lawmakers at the US Capitol wherein the issue of Bangladesh was discussed.
“We raised it (Bangladesh), and they also spoke to us. Look, we are against any type of violence. And we want it to stop. And it’s the responsibility, frankly, of the Bangladeshi government to stop it as soon as possible. From our side, it’s the responsibility of our government to put pressure so that that violence stops,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi was on an unofficial four-day trip to the US that concluded Tuesday. (PTI)
