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18 March 2021 12:04:20

Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi also won elections but that does not ensure democracy there claimed Rahul Gandhi in an antagonistic attack on the BJP Government

Comments on the BJP Government during a virtual discussion organised by the Brown University of the US

* Congress had been winning elections for 55 years. People always had  doubts about the prevailing democracy at that time, the doubt further strengthened by Congress’ imposition of emergency. Why does Rahul Gandhi not speak on this ?

* Is Rahul Gandhi, who defames India by painting a picture that no democracy exists in India in an online function organised by a foreign university, capable to lead India ?
Muammar Gaddafi, Rahul Gandhi and Saddam Hussein

New Delhi – Rahul Gandhi taking a jibe at the BJP Government said, “Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi used to have elections. They used to win them. It wasn’t like people were not voting but there was no institutional framework to declare the right vote”. He further said, “An election is not simply about people going and pressing a button on a voting machine. An election is about narrative, about institutions that make sure that the framework in the country is operating properly; an election is about a judiciary that is being fair, an election is about a debate that is taking place in Parliament. So you need to count those things for the vote”. He was interacting online with Professor Ashutosh Varshney of Brown University in the United States. In this programme, Rahul had commented on the Central Government, the BJP and the RSS.

Sweden’s V-Dem Institute’s democracy report had recently downgraded India from “world’s largest democracy” to an “electoral autocracy”. The US government-funded NGO, Freedom House, also downgraded the country’s status from “free” to “partly free”. The Brown University of the US was discussing this with Rahul Gandhi.

(Courtesy: Republic World)

To another question from Varshney, Gandhi said,”You can destroy an electoral democracy in the 21st century if you have got Facebook, WhatsApp, if you have financial dominance and if you control the institutions, why would not you let people just go and vote…just keep that pretence.” Gandhi alleged that the RSS has captured India’s institutions and it has been doing so openly since 2014 when the BJP came to power at the Centre. “It is very obvious to me that the institutions allowed a negotiation between our identities, cultures, languages. What I see is a determined attack on those institutions and a capture of those institutions,” he noted.Asked if the situation is comparable to the US, Gandhi said there are elements of that taking place in the US.

“I am nobody to comment on the US…. But my sense is that the American institutions are showing much more resilience than the Indian ones. I get the sense that the American system is countering this onslaught better than our system,” he said. (Due to the Congress and the anti-national views of Rahul Gandhi being known to Indian schools, no one is willing to hear his ‘infallible’ views on democracy. Yet, Rahul Gandhi will definitely be invited by JNU; the reason being that this school is the base of anti-nationals, both of them will have a common view. – Editor)

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