WASHINGTON – Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again launched a blistering attack on the BJP-led Central government, saying that the ruling party polarises society and are not inclusive and that is damaging India.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, the former MP said: “They sought to generate a certain amount of hate, polarise society and they are not inclusive.”
Criticising the BJP, he alleged: “They brace everybody and divide society and that’s damaging India.”
He said that India has a tradition of conversation of openness.
Citing examples of great leaders, spiritual and political personalities, he added that they (Congress) promoted peace, harmony and conversation.
“So its in our culture, tradition and history to bring people together and have these dialogues and I think it is the difference between us (Congress) and them (BJP). We feel that India should be allowed to express and we feel that political leaders should be comfortable when questioned and should learn from that question. It’s just the difference,” Gandhi said.
The Congress leader was responding to a query when asked that the BJP engages in hatred and violence.
To another query about the press freedom in India and the arrest of a senior journalist on charges of espionage, Gandhi said, “I think there is a weakening of press freedom and it is not hidden and it is apparent in India, the rest of the world can see it.”
Asserting that press freedom is very important for India, he said, “One should be open to criticism and one should listen to criticism and that’s the feedback that builds democracy. On multiple access there is a clampdown on institutions that allowed the Indian people to talk and negotiate. I view India as a negotiation between people, different languages, different cultures etc. and architectures that Mahatma Gandhi set up was to allow that negotiation to be carried out fairly and freely.”
“And that structure that allows the negotiation between India’s people is going under pressure,” he added.
To another query on the Opposition unity, the Congress leader, who is on a six-day visit to the US, said, “The opposition is pretty well united, and its getting more and more united.”
He noted that “we are having conversations with all the opposition”.
“I think quite a lot of good work is happening there. Its a complicated discussion because there are spaces where we are competing with the opposition. So a bit of give and take is required. But I am confident it will happen,” Gandhi said on the Opposition unity.
Asked about the Citizenship law, the former Congress Chief added that he thinks that all Indian people have a right to expression, religious freedom.
“All should feel free to express themselves. I don’t differentiate between any community and any caste. I think India is a conversation and the freer and more open the conversation becomes, India will become more powerful,” he noted.
Gandhi is also scheduled to participate in several programmes during his US tour.
He has already delivered a lecture at the Stanford University and also interacted with the Indian diaspora in San Francisco.
After breaking his silence on his disqualification as an MP, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi asserted that it is an advantage to him as it allows him to redefine himself which the BJP is not realising.
“My disqualification in many ways is a advantage to me because it opens up completely new spaces for me, allows me to completely redefine myself. I think they have given me a gift frankly and they don’t think they are realising it,” he said on Thursday.
“Politics is not linear, it completely goes off in one direction, its asymmetric. So I think that they have given me a gift, its apparent right now… they have,” the former MP added.
Gandhi was disqualified as an MP in March this year after a Surat court convicted him in the Modi surname case.
On Wednesday, Gandhi while speaking at the Stanford University had said that he had “never imagined” that he would get maximum punishment in a defamation case and would be disqualified as an MP, but asserted that it has given him a lot of opportunity to work.
Referring to his introduction as a former MP, the Congress leader had said, “I heard in the introduction that I was a member of Parliament until I was… (disqualified).”
“I don’t think when I joined politics in 2004, I ever imagined what I see going on in our country. It was way outside the way I imagined. To be the first person to be given the first maximum sentence on defamation and maximum sentence to get disqualified. I didn’t imagine that something like this was possible,” the former Wayanad Lok Sabha MP said.
He also has to vacate his official residence following the disqualification as an MP on April 22.
He will not be eligible to contest elections for eight years till the time a higher court stays his conviction and sentence.
“But then I think it’s actually given me a huge opportunity, a much bigger opportunity I would have in Parliament. That is the way politics works,” Gandhi said.
The Congress leader is scheduled to meet several people during his visit to the US in coming days in Washington D.C. and New York.
-IANS