Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has attacked the Government and the BJP claiming “India is not in a good place” as the ruling party has sprinkled kerosene all over the country. He even went on to target the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers saying he has been told by the European bureaucrats that they have “changed” and are “arrogant”.
Speaking at an event titled ‘Ideas for India’ at Cambridge University to mark the occasion of 75th year of India’s Independence, Rahul said: “I was talking to some bureaucrats from Europe and they were saying that the Indian Foreign Service has completely changed. They don’t listen to anything; they are arrogant. Now, they are just telling us what orders they are getting. There is no conversation. You can’t, you can’t do that.”
He alleged there is a systematic attack on institutions that allow conversation, and in an apparent reference to the Adanis and the Ambanis — his regular targets — he said the prevalent private sector monopoly is very dangerous but it never existed in this form, with such a massive concentration of power and capital.
“India is not in a good place as the BJP has spread kerosene all over the country,” he alleged, adding India is witnessing an attack on the institutions that built the country which is now occupied by the Deep State.
Leaders of the Opposition, including Sitaram Yechury, Salman Khurshid, Tejashwi Yadav, Mahua Moitra and Manoj Jha, were among the invitees. “We believe India is its people. But the BJP and the RSS believe it is geography. We are not just fighting the BJP; it’s no longer a pure political fight. The BJP has 100 per cent control of the media,” Rahul said in conversation with author Ashis Ray.
“The Congress is fighting to regain India. It’s an ideological battle now -- a national ideological battle. The Deep State is chewing the Indian State, much like what happened in Pakistan,” he said.
He said the BJP, despite a sharp drop in employment, continues to be in power in India because of “polarisation and the total domination of the media”.
He also spoke about private sector monopoly saying it’s very dangerous for one company to control all airports, all ports, all the infrastructure. “Private sector monopoly never existed in this form. It has never existed with such a massive concentration of power and capital,” he said.
Rahul got support from Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and said even his party has expressed similar views in past.
Shiv Sena, which is leading an alliance Government in Maharashtra with the Congress and the NCP as partners, said it is like strangulating the country’s democracy with the help of central probe agencies.
Raut said, “What he (Rahul Gandhi) said is true. We have said the same thing in different words. One can see a campaign against the people who speak against the Union Government. It is not good for democracy.”
“The people in our country are scared and not ready to speak the truth. Anyone who speaks against the Union Government faces a series of probes from the Central agencies,” he said.