Rahul Gandhi questioned the fairness of elections in India, saying that the BJP has captured the institutional framework. He alleged that intelligence agencies, the CBI and ED have been weaponized, and there are fundamental problems with the electoral machinery. Gandhi said the opposition will have to find a way to counter this situation.
New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has once again raised questions about the fairness of elections in India and claimed that the BJP has completely captured the country’s institutional framework, but the opposition will have to find a way to counter this. Speaking at a dialogue program at the Hertie School in Berlin, the German capital, he alleged that intelligence agencies, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Enforcement Directorate have been turned into weapons.
Rahul Gandhi uploaded a video of the program ‘Politics is the Art of Listening’ held in Berlin on his YouTube channel on Monday. He said, ‘We are raising questions about the fairness of elections in India… Our country’s democratic framework is under attack from all sides.’ He mentioned that the name of a Brazilian model appeared 22 times in the Haryana voter list.
Fundamental problems in the electoral machinery: Rahul
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, ‘We are not getting answers from the Election Commission to the questions we are raising.’ He said that there are some fundamental problems in the electoral machinery in India. ‘The institutional framework has been completely captured, when you look at our intelligence agencies, the CBI and the ED, you find that they have been completely weaponized.’
The Congress MP further said, ‘Look, how many cases are there against BJP people by the ED and CBI? The answer will be none.’ He claimed that most of the cases have been registered against people from the opposition. He alleged that if you are a big industrialist and intend to support the Congress, you will be threatened. The ED and CBI will come after you.’ BJP has a lot of money…
In Berlin, Rahul Gandhi, while referring to election funding, said that the BJP has much more money than the Congress. Therefore, as the opposition, we have to find a way to counter the situation… but you have to understand that we are not just fighting the BJP, we are also fighting against its takeover of the Indian institutional framework.’
Responding to a question related to the air pollution situation in Delhi and some other major cities of India, Rahul said that there is no contradiction between production and pollution; what matters is the type of fuel you are using, the type of energy you use for production. The pollution in our big cities can be addressed through appropriate government intervention.’ He said that Germany has a lot of production, but the air here is clean.
Response on the Israel issue
The Congress leader, responding to a question related to Israel, said, ‘We buy weapons from many countries, we buy from Israel, we also buy from Russia and we also buy from America. In difficult situations, we will have to defend ourselves… What Hamas did was completely wrong, and what Israel did afterward was also wrong. Women and children should not have been bombed.’
Edited by: Abhishek Pandey
About the author
Abhishek Pandey is a Consultant Writer at Navbharat Times Online. He has more than three years of experience working on news related to current affairs, politics, crime, and public interest. He has also closely covered the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2022 and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Courtesy: Hindi News