Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the fight against the Narendra Modi government wasn’t merely political, underlining his longstanding claim about institutional capture by the RSS.
“We are not just fighting the BJP. This is no longer a political fight. Anybody who thinks this a fight between one political organisation and other political organisations hasn’t understood what is going on. We are fighting the institutional structure of the Indian State, which has been captured by an organisation,” he said while interacting with the Indian diaspora in London.
“The central elements of that is — the BJP is in 100 per cent control of media, of communication. It is also broadly in control of the institutional framework of the country. We will get no respite from the institutional framework of our country.
“Which means the only way for us is to go to the large mass of Indian people. That's not only for the Congress but all the Opposition parties. The Congress is structuring that transition, how to go back to the roots and start moving mass action.”
Rahul has been saying for some time that the nature of the battle has changed because the institutional framework — which includes the Election Commission, media, investigating agencies and segments of the judiciary — are working to safeguard the government's interests.
He had in 2019 regretted that cases against the top leadership were not investigated despite clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing. Now, for the first time, he appears to be indicating that going to the people to build public pressure could be one possible solution.
Rahul said the Congress was contemplating new ways of communicating and funding, in addition to bringing the organisation closer to the masses.
“We are planning large-scale mass action on issues like unemployment, prices and regional issues,” he said.
He clarified that the cooperation of the regional parties would be crucial, explaining that his statement at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir had been misconstrued.
Rahul said what he had meant was that the Congress was the only organisation that could facilitate a national challenge to the BJP both in terms of ideology and outreach.
“For instance, we respect the DMK as a Tamil political organisation. But the battle is between the national visions of the Congress and the RSS,” he said.
Rahul took a dig at the Left while responding to a question about the need for a cadre-based Congress as CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and the RJD’s Manoj Jha, present at the event, looked on.
“If we have a cadre, we will be like the BJP. The job of the cadre is to shout, to stifle voices. The cadre is designed to stifle voices. A cadre is told, ‘You have to say this and nothing else’,” he said.
“Yechuryji is looking at me in a strange way but it is true. The cadre is designed to push a particular set of ideas down the people’s throat, whether in his system (Left) or the RSS.”
Rahul added: “We are not designed that way. We are designed to listen and pull out the people’s voice and place it on the table.”
But Rahul insisted that non-Congress Opposition parties were important and all of them were fighting the same battle.
Asked about the US secretary of state recently raising concerns about human rights violations in India, he said: "I am glad the US has opened up to the idea but we don't need the US to tell us there is polarisation in India. In fact, it has taken quite a long time to raise it. We are of course fighting polarisation."
Rahul spoke about India's soul being suppressed. "From the soul of India comes the voice of India. And a soul without a voice means nothing. India's voice is being crushed by an ideology, by the way technology is being used, by the institutional framework of the Indian State. The deep state -- like the CBI, ED -- are chewing the Indian State much like what happened in Pakistan."
He added: "A destabilised India, an India which spirals out of control, is a problem for the globe, not only a problem for us. Democracy in India is a global public good. It is a central anchor for the planet. Because we are the only people who have managed democracy at the scale that we have. Nobody has been able to do it. If that cracks, it will cause a problem for the globe."
Rahul is expected to speak at Cambridge University on Monday.
