Democracy weakened, says Rahul Gandhi; Amit Shah calls him anti-India

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said Indian democracy had faced severe attack in the past decade, but finally it was fighting back, drawing a prompt response from the ruling party that “the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha never misses a chance to show India in poor light”.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Rahul said: “I have seen the government of Maharashtra just being taken away from us… Indian democracy has been under attack, has been very badly weakened, and now it's fighting back.”

He said the opposition parties did put up a good fight in the recent LS elections despite the absence of a level-playing field. Sharing his own experiences, he said the Congress party fought an election with frozen bank accounts.

“We fought an election with our bank accounts frozen. I don’t know any democracy where that's happened. Maybe that type of thing happened in Syria or used to happen in Iraq,” he said.

The Leader of Opposition said there were 20-plus cases against him and he was the only person in the history of the country to get a prison sentence for defamation. “We have a Chief Minister who's in jail right now...”

Back home, on Rahul's “we can think of scrapping reservations when India becomes fairer” remark, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said: "Rahul Gandhi has once again brought the Congress' anti-reservation face to the forefront. The thoughts that were in his mind eventually found their way out as words.”

Shah also accused Rahul of standing with anti-India forces. "Standing with forces that conspire to divide the country and making anti-national statements have become a habit for Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party,” he said.