Targeting the Narendra Modi government, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has said the biggest threat to India is the “attack on democracy”. At an interaction at EIA University in Colombia, 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.” 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 he is very optimistic. “But at the same time, there are fault lines within the Indian structure; there are risks that India has to overcome. The single biggest risk is the attack on democracy that is taking place. India is a conversation between all its people. Different traditions, religions, and ideas require space. And the best method for creating that space is the democratic system. And currently, there is a wholesale attack on the democratic system in India,” he said. The other risk, he said, is the rift between different parts of the country. “Some 16-17 different languages and different religions. Allowing these different traditions to thrive, giving them space to express themselves, is very important for India. We cannot do what China does: suppress people and run an authoritarian system. Our design will not accept that.”
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 most of 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.”
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.