“Even Saddam, Gaddafi Used To Win Elections”: Rahul Gandhi On India’s Democratic Health

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said a politician needs institutional support to get his message heard in a democracy, something the Opposition is being denied in India today.

Speaking in online interaction with Ashutosh Varshney, Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences at Brown University, USA, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said a politician needs institutional support to get his message heard in a democracy, something the Opposition is being denied in India today. If one political party is able to capture all institutions, elections will become meaningless, Mr Gandhi stressed.

“The BJP and the RSS are destroying the framework of all institutions that hold up a democracy, including the media and the judiciary. Think of the airtime the media gives to the Prime Minister and to any opposition leader. The basic function of Parliament is to hear out its representatives. But when I get up to speak in Parliament, my mic is switched off,” the Congress leader said.

A diverse country like India needs “active, dynamic and constant negotiation” among that diversity, which the BJP-RSS is suppressing, the Gandhi scion stressed, adding, “There is no conversation in Parliament either. BJP MPs are told what to speak. One leader once told PM Modi he did not agree with him, and the PM threw him out.”

When questioned about recent reports by international watchdogs saying democracy in India is weakening, Mr Gandhi said, “We don’t need stamps from them, but yes, democracy is weakening. In fact, they are way behind the curve. The situation in India is far worse than they, or sections within our country, imagine. Democracy is ineffective without its supporting frameworks. Even Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein allowed voting.”

There is “total domination” by the BJP on not just money power, the media and the judiciary, but also social media, the former Congress president said. “Everyone knows the head of Facebook in India is a BJP person. One girl left Congress and went to work for Facebook. She had a job contract. But when they found out she had worked for Congress, they said you can’t come. She cried at my door,” Mr Gandhi narrated.

While talking about the ongoing farmers’ protest, though Mr Gandhi agreed the farm sector needs reform, he stressed that the reform needs to be based on conversations with all stakeholders and should be focused on empowering the producer. “The laws the BJP has brought are an assault on the producer,” he added.

The Congress leader, when questioned what Mahatma Gandhi’s path meant to him, said the ‘shoonyata’ that Bapu brought in, of decentralising the self in a situation, was missing today.

On the Congress lacking workers on the ground, Mr Gandhi said, “We were never a cadre-based party like the RSS. We are a party based on people bringing about and managing conversations, driven by ideology.”