'Angry at Indians...Seeking UK Intervention in India': RaGa's New London Clip Draws More Wrath

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told the Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom that it is the “duty” of every Indian, everywhere in the world, to “speak up for India’s core values and protect our beloved democracy”.

His reply came after a woman in the audience said, “I’m feeling wretched at the state of my country. My father was an RSS man, and proudly so, but wouldn’t recognise the country that is now. For those of us, who are out of our country, how can we engage and empower our democracy?”

Talking to News18 about the new video clip, BJP leader Amit Malviya said, “Rahul Gandhi has been berating India and Indian institutions because they do not favour his kind of politics; his ideologies; his persona. Rahul Gandhi has to realise that he has been rejected by the people of this country, and he can’t be angry at them for making a choice. He has to realise that it is not his entitlement to be the prime minister of India. He has to understand that people do not see any merit in him as an individual or as a politician.”

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the Wayanad lawmaker of “shaming the country” on foreign soil by “seeking foreign intervention”.

“BJP would like to emphatically state with great agony that Rahul Gandhi, in his speeches, has sought to shame India’s democracy, polity, parliament, political system and judicial system,” said BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, accusing the Congress leader of telling lies.

Gandhi had questioned at an event in London “why Europe and the US, the defenders of democracies, were oblivious of how a huge chunk of democracy in India had come undone”. The BJP said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his predecessor Sonia Gandhi should clarify on the comments.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju too reacted on Gandhi’s ‘voices of opposition leaders muted in Parliament’ statement. “Be it Rahul Gandhi or others, they keep abusing the government and PM Modi from dawn to dusk. The one who speaks the most says that they are not allowed to speak,” Rijiju said.

The Wayanad MP had told British parliamentarians in London on Monday that functioning microphones in the Lok Sabha are often silenced against the Opposition.

During an event organised by veteran Indian-origin Opposition Labour Party MP Virendra Sharma in the Grand Committee Room within the House of Commons complex, Gandhi shared experiences from the Bharat Jodo Yatra which he described as a “deeply political exercise in mass mobilisation”.

In a lighter vein, he used a faulty microphone in the room to make his point about what he described as a “stifling” Opposition debate in India.

“Our mikes 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 52-year-old Wayanad MP told the gathering, in response to a question about sharing his experience of being a politician in India with his counterparts in Britain.

“Demonetisation, which was a disastrous financial decision, we were not allowed to discuss. GST we were not allowed to discuss. Chinese troops entering Indian territory we were not allowed to discuss. I remember a Parliament where there were vibrant discussions, heated debates, arguments, and disagreements but we had a conversation. And, that’s frankly what we miss in Parliament. We have to use debates to fit in other debates. There is a stifling that is going on,” he said.

The BJP has accused Gandhi of maligning India on foreign soil while praising China.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday hit out at Gandhi for his remarks and asked the Congress leader not to betray the nation.

“Don’t betray India, Rahul Gandhi ji. The objections to India’s foreign policy is an evidence of your scant understanding of the issue. No one will believe the lies you spread about India from foreign soil,” Thakur told reporters in New Delhi.

Thakur said Gandhi has resorted to “maligning India” from foreign soil as part of a conspiracy to hide his failures.

“Rahul Gandhi has become a storm of controversies. Be it foreign agencies, foreign channels or be it foreign soil. He does not lose a single opportunity to malign India,” Thakur said.

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