NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday triggered a fresh controversy after unleashing an all-out attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party from Berlin.During his address at an event at Hertie School, the Indian National Congress leader reiterated his “vote theft” charge against the BJP, while also accusing the saffron party of multiple failures, including “eliminating the Constitution” and “deteriorating production” in the country.Here are the top quotes by Rahul Gandhi from his addressOn ‘Vote theft’
- Rahul claimed that the Congress won the Haryana assembly elections in 2014 and added that Maharashtra assembly polls in 2024 “were not fair”.
- “We have won elections in Telangana, Himachal Pradesh. We have been raising issues as far as the fairness of elections in India is concerned. I have done press conferences in India where we have clearly shown without a shadow of a doubt that we won the Haryana election and that we don’t feel the Maharashtra elections were fair. There is a full-scale assault taking place on the institutional framework of our country. We asked direct questions to the Election Commission,” Rahul said.
- “A Brazilian woman was there on the voting list 22 times in Haryana… We did not get a response. We fundamentally believe that there is a problem with the electoral machinery in India,” he added.
‘Wholesale capture of our institutional framework’
- The Congress leader also alleged that the Centre has “weaponised” investigating agencies, suggesting a quid pro quo in which businessmen in India financially support the BJP rather than opposition parties.
- “There is a wholesale capture of our institutional framework. Our intelligence agencies, ED and CBI, have been weaponised. ED and CBI have zero cases against the BJP, and most of the political cases are against the people who oppose them. If you are a businessman and try to support the Congress, you are threatened. BJP uses the institutional framework of India as a tool to build political power. Look at the money the BJP has and the opposition has,” Rahul said.
- “There is an attack on the democratic system. We have to find ways to counter this. We will create a system of opposition resistance that will succeed. We are not fighting the BJP, but their capture of the Indian institutional structure,” the Congress leader added.
‘West and India, have handed over production to the Chinese’
- The West and to an extent India, have handed over production to the Chinese. China dominates production today, which means that it is difficult to give employment to a large number of people. Countries like India, the US and Germany cannot give their employment based on services. How do democracies produce in this transition? What are the models that are required, how do you think about production in a democratic environment, and what are the types of partnerships that India, the US and Europe can create for production? It will become very difficult for democracy to sustain itself if we are not able to produce,” Rahul said.
- “A huge part of the turbulence that we are seeing in Europe, India and the US, polarisation of politics, is because we are not able to give our people jobs, which is because we said: China, you produce for the world,” he added.
- “Everything that you see is made in China, and that, at least for a country like India, is a problem. We have the capability, cost structure and population to produce, but we have just not done it,” he said.
- “We are in the middle of a socio-economic-political transition that is taking place. In India, we benefited greatly from the hegemony of the US from the 1990s till about 2014. We had tremendous advantages as we built a relationship, a partnership with them,” Rahul said.
- “We lived in a unipolar world, where the US had its shortcomings and made mistakes, but it defined the rules and structure. For the first time, that hegemony is being challenged effectively. We are seeing a dramatic reduction in American power across the spectrum: militarily, economically, and financially. A challenge is being posed to the US dollar and the financial system. The US is struggling internally and almost walking away from its earlier position,” the Congress leader added.
‘BJP proposing the elimination of the Constitution’
- “What the BJP is proposing essentially is the elimination of the Constitution. Elimination of the idea of equality between states, elimination of the idea of equality between languages and religions, elimination of the idea of the central core of the Constitution, which is that every individual will have the same value,” the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha said to a group of students at the Hertie School.
- ‘Politics is the art of listening’, the Congress leader said that when there is an attack on the democratic system, the opposition has to find ways to counter it and not merely say that there is a problem with the elections.
- “We will deal with it, and we will create a method, a system of opposition resistance that will succeed. But, we’re not fighting the BJP. You have to understand that we’re fighting their capture of the Indian institutional structure,” he said.
- “If you are going to have any conversation about democracy on the planet, you cannot ignore by far the largest and most complex democracy in the world. That is why I say Indian democracy is a global public good; it is not just an Indian asset, it is a global asset,” he said.
- “But, that’s not how the BJP sees (it). It views the institutional framework of India as belonging to them. So they use it as a tool for building political power,” he alleged.
- “So when I talk of the attack on the Indian democratic system, I don’t say it, but it is actually an attack not just on the Indian democratic system, it is an attack on the global democratic system,” Rahul observed.
BJP’s reactionIn a sharp reaction to Rahul’s remarks, BJP upped the ante against the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, claiming that he goes abroad to “speak against the nation.”BJP’s national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari alleged that Rahul and Congress want “chaos and unrest in Indian Democracy””From Fighting Indian state, to threatening Anarchy. Rahul Gandhi’s Congress with his ideological patron George Soros wants Chaos, Unrest in Indian Democracy. Rahul goes abroad for uniting such Anti India forces,” Bhandari wrote on a post on X.”Congress hates Indian Democracy. Congress hates Bharat’s progress. Rahul Gandhi’s Congress wants Anarchy!” he added.Union minister of state Shobha Karandjale also attacked Congress leader, claiming that he goes abroad to “speak against the nation.””Rahul Gandhi is not the leader of opposition but an anti-India leader who goes abroad and speaks against the nation. What does he aim to gain by doing this? He still behaves like a child, not a leader.””There is no talk about development in Karnataka but only about who will remain as the CM,” she added.
