Rahul Gandhi: An unrelenting Rahul Gandhi continued his attack against the BJP-led government at the Centre. The Congress MP again alleged that Opposition’s voice was being stifled in India. Addressing British parliamentarians in the Houses of Parliament complex in London on Monday, Gandhi said it is quite rough being an MP in India.
He was speaking in the Grand Committee room of the British Parliament to a jam-packed room of 90 guests. His audience consisted of Lords, Dames, MPs, academicians, the public, and members of the media.
In a lighter vein, Rahul Gandhi used a faulty microphone in the room to make his point about what he described as “stifling” of the Opposition’s voice in India.
‘Our mics are functioning’
“Our mics are not out of order, they are functioning, but you still can’t switch them on. That’s happened to me a number of times while I am speaking,” the Congress MP told the gathering.
Rahul Gandhi also shared his experiences from the 3500-km long ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from September 2022 to January 2023. The initial discussion was carried out by Mukulika Banerjee , Professor at London School of Economics and Sanam Arora, chairperson, National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK.
He was asked about the reason behind him undertaking Bharat Jodo Yatra. Gandhi said, “When I first joined politics, I had a particular view of India and of politics. During those days, I believed that any Indian could say what he wanted to say. That is not the case now. Conversations that used to be completely open and free, are now suppressed and stunted.”
“The RSS and the BJP are infiltrating institutions. They are coercing these institutions and (hence) conversations are not possible. That is why (I undertook) Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he said.
India needs to start talking again
He added that the central idea of Bharat Jodo Yatra was that “India needs to start talking again”.
The MP Wayanad also said that he does not believe in the ‘nobody can beat the BJP’ narrative. “The Congress party is an idea. We have ruled the country for many many more years than the BJP has. ‘Nobody can beat the BJP’ is a narrative in the media. I don’t listen to the narrative in the media . I listen to the people on the ground,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Views expressed by Rahul personal to him: UK MP
Later speaking to the media, Labour MP for Ealing in Southall, Virendra Sharma, said, “What Rahul Gandhi said will have no impact on the relationship between India and Britain. Views that he expressed were personal to him and according to his politics.”
Rt Hon Valerie Vaz, Labour MP for Walsall South, said, “One of our former leaders of the Labour Party used to praise India as being the largest democracy and held India up as the most important and largest democracy in the world. And we have heard today that India is bigger than the United States, bigger than whole of Europe, I think that’s what India’s got to hold on to. Lots of positive things coming out, but what India is facing we have had it in Brazil, we have had it Europe, we have had it in England where people voted to leave the European Union. So he is right in the way that there is a bit of disinformation going on and that’s what we have to counter.”
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