Didn't Speak Anything Anti-India, Will Speak Inside Parliament: Rahul Gandhi On London Speech

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he did not speak anything "anti-India", adding " If they will allow I will speak inside the parliament." 

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi

Source : PTI

New Delhi: Reacting for the first time over the criticism drawn for his London speech, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he did not speak anything "anti-India", adding "if they will allow I will speak inside the parliament." 

A controversy in recent days stemmed from a speech by Rahul Gandhi at Cambridge University where he said that the Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance. 

During his address, Gandhi listed five key aspects of the alleged attack on Indian democracy — capture and control of media and judiciary; surveillance and intimidation; coercion by federal law enforcement agencies; attacks on minorities, Dalits and tribals; and shutting down of dissent.

I didn’t speak anything anti-India (in London seminar). If they will allow I will speak inside the parliament: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to ANI https://t.co/EdyWVDUng7

— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2023

Rahul Gandhi, a Visiting Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School, delivered a lecture on the subject of ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st Century’ on March 1.

Following his speech, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been demanding an apology from Gandhi for trying to show the country in a poor country while traveling abroad. On Monday Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that Rahul Gandhi should come to the Parliament House and offer an apology to the members of the House and the people of India. 

Since the start of the Budget Session on March 13, the Parliament has been adjourned several times after the BJP created an uproar over Gandhi's remark. 

In his speech, Gandhi also claimed that constraints were being put on Parliament, media, and judiciary in the country. 

"Everybody knows and it's been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space. The institutional framework which is required for a democracy -- Parliament, free press, the judiciary, just the idea of mobilisation, moving around -- all are getting constrained. So, we are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy," Rahul Gandhi remarked.