BJP proposing elimination of Indian Constitution: Rahul Gandhi in Berlin
Speaking at the Hertie School in Berlin last week, Gandhi also claimed that the BJP had launched a large-scale offensive and hijacked the country’s institutional framework to help it use it as a tool to build its own political power, and that the Opposition was also fighting against it.
In an hour-long video released by the Congress on Monday, Gandhi said India’s largest and most complex democracy is a global entity and the “attack” on the Indian democratic system is also an attack on the global democratic system.
“What the BJP is proposing is essentially the abolition of the Constitution. The abolition of the idea of equality between states, the abolition of the idea of equality between languages and religions, the abolition of the fundamental idea of the Constitution that every individual will have the same value,” the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha told a group of students at Hertie School.
In the video titled ‘Politics is the art of listening’, Gandhi said, “We will create a method, a system of opposition resistance that will be successful. But we are not fighting the BJP. You must understand that we are fighting against their takeover of the institutional structure of India.”
Answering students’ questions, Gandhi claimed that the institutional framework was weaponised.
“Fundamentally, we believe that there is a problem with the electoral machinery in India. Secondly, our institutional framework has been taken over wholesale. There is a large-scale attack on the institutional framework of our country,” he alleged. He stated that there is an atmosphere in India where institutions are not performing the role they are supposed to play.
Gandhi said that while Europeans were striving to establish a European Union, India established an economic and political union based on the Constitution in 1947.
“If you are going to have any conversation about democracy on the planet, you cannot ignore the largest and most complex democracy in the world. That is why I say Indian democracy is a global public good; it is not just an asset of India, it is a global asset.
“So when I talk about the attack on the Indian democratic system, I am not saying this, but actually it is not just an attack on the Indian democratic system, it is also an attack on the global democratic system,” Gandhi said.
The Congress leader was on a trip to Germany last week.
