Rahul Gandhi : accuses India’s institutions of a “full-scale assault” and reiterates the “vote chori” accusation while in Germany

Rahul Gandhi: the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has hit the BJP hard once again, repeating accusations of “vote chori” and asserting that India is seeing a “full-scale assault on the institutional framework” of the nation.

Gandhi said that the 2024 elections for the Haryana and Maharashtra assemblies “were not fair” while speaking at a rally with the topic “Politics Is The Art Of Listening” at the Hertie School in Berlin, Germany.

He said that the Congress party had officially expressed concerns to the Indian Election Commission but had not heard back.

“We firmly think that India’s voting system is flawed. The second is that our institutional system has been completely taken over,” Gandhi said.

“When you look at our intelligence agencies, you look at the CBI, you look at the ED, they’ve been weaponized,” he said, accusing important institutions of being corrupted.

“Look at the number of cases that the ED and the CBI have against the BJP people,” Gandhi remarked, referring to what he called selective action by federal agencies. The answer is zero, as you will discover. And consider how many cases they have against those who disagree with them.

Gandhi claims that as a result, institutions are no longer carrying out their statutory functions.

“From the standpoint of Congress, we contributed to the establishment of the institutional structure. Therefore, we never thought of it as our own institutional structure. The BJP doesn’t see it that way,” he said.

According to him, the governing party views institutions as tools of political control.

“The Indian institutional structure is seen by the BJP as theirs. Thus, they use it as a means of gaining political dominance. Just have a look at the disparity in wealth between the opposition and the BJP. “You’ll notice a 30:1 ratio,” he stated.

Gandhi said that in order to address what he called structural issues, the opposition must actively come up with solutions.

“Just saying, ‘Oh, you know, there’s a problem with the elections,’ is insufficient. We’ll take care of it. And we’ll develop an effective opposition resistance strategy,” he said.

Gandhi noted that coalitions are often only seen through the lens of elections in response to a query about the INDIA bloc. He called for a more comprehensive interpretation of the category.

“Take a somewhat different approach. The fundamental beliefs of the RSS are not shared by any of the INDIA bloc’s parties. That’s the idea. You may ask any of them. He said, “None of them would admit that we really support the RSS’s ideology.

Although he admitted that coalition partners have disputes, he emphasized that unity wins out when it counts.

Therefore, on that topic, we are very much in agreement. However, we have and will continue to have tactical contests,” Gandhi said.

“However, you will see that we are quite unified when it comes to the Opposition’s need for unity, which is evident every day in Parliament, for instance. Additionally, we will challenge the BJP on the legislation that we find objectionable. Elections are no longer the only fight at stake. “An alternative vision of India is what we are currently fighting for,” he said.

Gandhi said, “We have won elections in Telangana and Himachal Pradesh,” citing recent political successes. We have been bringing up concerns about the impartiality of Indian elections.”

He said that the Congress party has provided proof to support its allegations.

“I have done press conferences in India where we have clearly shown without a shadow of a doubt that we won the Haryana election and that we don’t feel the Maharashtra elections were fair,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi reiterated his accusations against the Election Commission, saying, “Our nation’s institutional foundation is being attacked on a large scale. We questioned the Election Commission directly. In Haryana, a Brazilian lady appeared on the ballot 22 times. We received no answer.

“We fundamentally believe that there is a problem with the electoral machinery in India,” he said.