Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is on a weeklong tour of the United Kingdom. In his latest comments, he said the Narendra Modi-led Union government does not allow any idea of the Opposition.
Continuing his verbal offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) abroad, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday termed the contest as a fight between courage and cowardice.
Speaking to the Indian diaspora in London, Rahul also said that an Indian leader could address the University of Cambridge or Harvard University but not an Indian university as the Narendra Modi-led government does not allow any discussion whether it’s inside or outside of the Parliament.
He said, “The more they attack me, the better that is for me because the more I understand…It’s a fight between courage and cowardice. It’s a fight between respect and disrespect, between love and hatred. As I said during the Yatra: nafrat ke bazaar mein, hum mohabbat ki dukaan kholne aaye hain (in a market of hatred, we want to set up a shop that spreads love).”
“The reason is that our government simply does not allow any idea of the Opposition, any concept of the Opposition to be discussed. The same happens in Parliament House when there are important things we need to speak about, like demonization, GST, the fact that the Chinese are sitting inside our territory… we are not allowed to raise them in the House,” said Rahul amid chants of “shame, shame” from the estimated 2,000-strong crowd.
“It’s shameful but it’s true and this is not the India that all of us are used to. Our country is an open country, a country where we pride ourselves on our intelligence, respect each other’s opinions, listen to each other and that atmosphere has been destroyed,” said Rahul.
Rahul went on to reiterate that he was forced to undertake his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, starting down south in Kanyakumari and walking around 4,000 km all the way up to Kashmir in the north of India, because all the institutions that protect democracy and allow an expression of voice have been “captured by the BJP”. He said his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ was demonstrating to the whole country what real India is about.
He said, “What Indian values are? What do our religions tell us? What do our different languages tell us? What our different cultures tell us (is that) we are one country with many, many different ideas. And we have the capability of living together harmoniously without hatred without anger without disrespect. And it’s when we do that, we are successful. And that was the message of the Yatra.”
Attacking the BJP, Rahul said, “On the other side, we have an ideology of hatred and violence, a disrespectful ideology that attacks people because of their ideas. And you must have noticed one thing this is in the nature of BJP and the RSS.”
