New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whose remarks on the state of India’s democracy during his recent tour of the UK has stalled Parliament repeatedly, said he would speak in the House “if he was allowed to”.
Reiterating his stance that he had not said anything anti-India, Gandhi said Thursday: “If they allow me to speak in Parliament, then /I will say what I think.” He added his words would not be to the BJP’s liking.
Gandhi is in the crosshairs of the ruling BJP for several comments he made in the UK. While addressing a lecture at Cambridge University in London, Rahul said, “Everybody knows and it’s been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space. The institutional framework which is required for a democracy; Parliament, free press, the judiciary, just the idea of mobilisation, moving around all are getting constrained. So, we are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy.”
At an interaction at the UK-based policy think tank Chatham House in London on 6 March, Rahul had said that democratic institutions in India were under a “brutal attack” and termed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a “secret society” built to subvert democratic processes.
The Opposition has demanded his apology in Parliament for such remarks, with Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju telling reporters Thursday: “The person who speaks the most in this country, and targets the government day and night, says abroad that he does not have the freedom to speak in India.”
Rijiju added citizens won’t be silent if Rahul tries to “harm or insult the nation”. “Just because the country has rejected the Congress leadership, doesn’t mean he can tarnish the nation abroad,” the minister said.
While Rahul was silent on the Opposition’s demand for an unconditional apology, his party colleagues dismissed that outright.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said: “I want to ask those who are seeking an apology that Modiji went to five-six countries and there he (Modi) humiliated our country saying it was a sin to be born in India, now these same people are curbing freedom of expression.”
Two days ago, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said: “Rahul Gandhi hasn’t said anything that requires an apology. He expressed concern about the state of our democracy and attacks on it by the practices of the ruling government.”
Tharoor pointed out that what Rahul said was “milder than what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in foreign countries”.
Meanwhile, both houses of Parliament has seen unruly scenes and wound up early this session over the BJP’s demand for an apology and over the Opposition’s demand for a joint-parliamentary probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue.