Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the United Kingdom has sparked a major political row in India, with the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) slamming his comments made during his address at the esteemed Cambridge University, which talked about the BBC tax raid among other issues.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the structures of Indian democracy are under “brutal attack” and there are conversations ongoing within the Opposition to unite around an alternative vision for the country, making several remarks at Cambridge University as well as an India Insights event organised by the Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA) in London.
The former Congress president also alleged that the recent tax survey action against the BBC was an example of the “suppression of voice across the country”, which is why he undertook the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ as an expression of voice against the ruling BJP’s attempt to silence the country.
Raising th mercury on the Modi led BJP government, Gandhi said, “The media, the institutional frameworks, judiciary, Parliament is all under attack and we were finding it very difficult to put the voice of the people through the normal channels.”
Gandhi’s earlier comments at Cambridge University that Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance, invited sharp reactions from the BJP that accused him of maligning the country’s image on foreign soil after facing successive electoral setbacks.
“We can understand his hatred towards the Prime Minister, but the conspiracy to malign the country on foreign soil with the help of foreign friends raises questions on the agenda of the Congress,” Anurag Thakur, the Information and Broadcasting minister, told reporters in Delhi on Friday.
Rahul Gandhi had also raised allegations that the BJP and Centre had tried to halt and disrupt the Bharat Jodo Yatra by Congress multiple times, while the BJP refuted all such claims and said that there were multiple security breaches in the foot march.
