HYDERABAD — Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led government, alleging that India had ceased to be a democracy since 2014, when what he described as “fascists” came to power.
Speaking at the Bharat Summit, hosted by the Telangana government in Hyderabad, Gandhi said the Opposition had remained in a state of shock for nearly a decade as the country’s political and electoral landscape underwent a dramatic transformation.
Questioning the legitimacy of elections, he asked how an electoral process could be considered democratic when the Election Commission allegedly declared 140 million voters illegal.
“It is important for the democratic movement on the planet that India remains a democracy, and what we have found and proven is that India is actually no longer a democracy,” he said, according to PTI.
“In 2014, we witnessed a completely new kind of election, something we had never seen before. Millions and millions of dollars were pumped into the political system. There was a completely new type of campaign, a kind of political drama we had never witnessed before,” he said.
Gandhi said India’s electoral system, which had traditionally witnessed close contests and coalition governments, was suddenly upturned, leaving the Opposition struggling to understand the new political reality.
“I would be lying if I said the Opposition was not in shock. We were in shock, not for a year, not for two years, but for an entire decade,” he said, India Today reported.
Taking aim at the ruling establishment, Gandhi also described its political approach as fascist.
Drawing a distinction between two kinds of people, he said one category comprised those who believed they knew everything and had answers to every question, while the other consisted of people who remained curious, listened to others and were willing to acknowledge their mistakes.
He said the first category could be found across business, academia and politics, where individuals were convinced of their own infallibility.
“In politics, we call them fascists,” he said, according to India Today report.
Gandhi argued that such people tended to shout and scream rather than listen, while the majority remained humble and receptive to different perspectives.
“Fascists tend to have a louder voice. Historically, fascists emerge when systems collapse. When everything is working, they go into hiding. But when systems and structures collapse, they suddenly emerge, create a nuisance for a little while, and then disappear again,” he said.
Gandhi also apologised to foreign delegates who could not attend the Bharat Summit, alleging that the Union government had prevented them from participating in the event.
His remarks came a day after Congress MP Shashi Tharoor claimed that 115 of the 315 speakers cleared by the Ministry of External Affairs had either been denied entry into India or had their visas cancelled, apparently on the instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Tharoor questioned the legal basis for the decisions and criticised the Centre, arguing that a democracy should not suppress voices merely because they might be critical of the government.
