Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 2: Targeting the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has claimed that “attack on democracy” posed the biggest threat to India.
At an interaction with students at the EIA University in Colombia, Mr Gandhi said, “India has many religions, traditions, and languages. A democratic system provides a place for everyone. But right now, the democratic system is under attack from all sides.”
He also took a jibe at the US President Donald Trump saying his “polarising campaign is backed by the unemployed.” “I think, the central reason why Mr Modi arose and to an extent why Mr Trump came, is the question of jobs in India and in the United States. There’s a large part of our populations that simply do not have jobs and cannot see a future. And, so they are feeling pain. And they have supported these types of leaders,” Mr Gandhi told students.
This was not the first time Rahul Gandhi had attributed the election of Donald Trump to unemployment. In 2017, speaking to the students at Princeton University, Gandhi had said leaders like Narendra Modi and Donald Trump were being elected all over the world as the people were in pain due to unemployment.
Highlighting the importance of a democratic system in a diverse nation like INDIA, Mr Gandhi said India faced “structural flaws.”
“India has strong capabilities in areas like engineering and healthcare, so I am very optimistic about the country. But at the same time, there are also flaws in the structure that India has to correct. The biggest challenge is the attack on democracy taking place in India,” he said.
The Congress leader emphasised that a democratic system was essential for different traditions, customs, and ideas, including religious beliefs, to thrive in diversity. The BJP has responded strongly, calling Gandhi “Leader of Propaganda” and accusing him of targeting Indian democracy on foreign soil.
In his response to a question on India’s growing relevance in the global landscape, Gandhi said, “India has tremendous potential with its 1.4 billion people. But India has a completely different system from China. China is very centralised and uniform. India is decentralised and has multiple languages, cultures, traditions, and religions. India has a much more complex system.”
Gandhi said India can offer a lot to the world and that he was very optimistic. “India has strong capabilities in areas like engineering and healthcare, so I am very optimistic about the country. But at the same time, there are also flaws in the structure that India has to correct. The biggest challenge is the attack on democracy taking place in India,” Mr Gandhi said.
The Congress leader argued that the democratic system remains crucial for diversity, allowing different traditions, customs, and ideas, including religious beliefs, to thrive. However, he added, the democratic system in India was under attack, which was a “major risk” or threat.
“India has multiple religions, traditions, and languages — in fact, the country is essentially a conversation between all these people and cultures. Different traditions, religions, and ideas require space, and the best method for creating that space is the democratic system,” Mr Gandhi said.
The other risk, he said, was the rift between different parts of the country. “Currently, there is a wholesale attack on this democratic system, and that is a major risk. Another big risk is the tension between different conceptions in parts of the country. With 16-17 major languages and many religions, it is crucial to allow these diverse traditions to thrive and give them the space they need. We cannot do what China does: suppress people and run an authoritarian system. Our design will not accept that,” he said.
Addressing engineering students, he said empires arise during energy transitions. “The British controlled the steam engine and coal. They became a superpower. We in India fought that empire and eventually got freedom in 1947. After the British, the Americans managed the transition from coal and steam to petrol and the internal combustion engine. Now we are facing a new transition to the electric motor, from the fuel tank to the battery.
“The real fight between the US, which has a maritime vision of the world, and China, which has a terrestrial vision, is about who is going to manage this transition,” Gandhi said, adding that “the Chinese are winning so far.” India, he said, is China’s neighbour and a close partner of the US. “We are sitting right in the middle of where the forces are colliding.”
Talking about the US, the senior Congress leader said President Donald Trump’s polarisation campaign is targeted at the unemployed. “Despite the economic growth in India, we are unable to provide jobs because we are a service-based economy and are unable to produce. In America, most people polarised with Trump are those who have lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector. China has demonstrated production in a non-democratic environment, but we need a democratic structure. Therefore, the challenge is to develop a model of production in a democratic environment that can compete with China.”
He also lashed out at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP duo and said “cowardice” was at the heart of their ideology. “This is the nature of BJP-RSS. If you notice a statement of the Foreign Minister, he said, ‘China is much more powerful than us. How can I pick a fight with them?’ At the heart of the ideology is cowardice,” the Congress leader said.
Gandhi cited an incident from Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s book, “he and his friends beat up a Muslim man and felt happy about it.” In reference to this incident, Gandhi said the Sangh’s ideology was to “beat up weak people” and run away from those who are stronger than them.
“In his book, Savarkar has written that once he and his few friends beat up a Muslim man, and they felt very happy that day. If five people beat up a single individual, which makes one of them happy, it is cowardice. This is RSS ideology, to beat weak people,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The BJP hit back at the Leader of the Opposition. “Once again, Rahul Gandhi behaves like LoP – Leader of Propaganda. Goes abroad and attacks Indian Democracy! After all, he wants to fight (the) Indian state! Sometimes demands that the US and the UK should intervene in our affairs, and now this. From Sena to Judiciary to Sanvidhan to Sanatan,” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said on X.
Rahul Gandhi had earlier blamed the recent violent protests in Ladakh on the ruling BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS. He alleged that the people of Ladakh and their culture were under attack by the BJP-RSS combine. “Ladakhis asked for a voice. The BJP responded by killing four young men and jailing Sonam Wangchuk,” the Congress leader said in a post on X.
“Stop the killing. Stop the violence. Stop the intimidation. Give Ladakh a voice. Give them the 6th Schedule,” he added. Gandhi has also been targeting the Centre with his “vote chori” allegations, a claim made amid the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.
