Rahul Gandhi has said there is a “full-scale assault on the democratic institutions” in India, cutting through the “mother of democracy” hype built by the Narendra Modi government in the run-up to the G20 summit.

“Institutions and the democratic structure are under attack from the people who are running India. Everybody who has even a little bit of understanding of India knows this. There is an increase in discrimination and violence against tribals, Dalits and minorities,” the Congress leader told a news conference in Brussels, Belgium.

But, Rahul added, “the fight for democracy in India is ours and it is our responsibility. And we will take care of it and we will make sure that the onslaught on our institutions and our freedoms is stopped.”

The government was trying to change the nature of the country, he said. “There is a fight between two visions — Mahatma Gandhi’s vision and Nathuram Godse’s vision.”

In response to a question about talk of India’s name being changed, Rahul said: “I am perfectly happy with the names that we have in our Constitution. ‘India, that is Bharat,’ works perfectly well for me.”

He added that he saw the talk of a name change as a “panic reaction” and evidence of “fear” in the government.

“We of course came out with the name INDIA for our coalition. I think it’s a fantastic idea because it represents exactly who we are. We consider ourselves to be the voice of India. But it has obviously disturbed the Prime Minister enough that he wants to change the name of the country,” Rahul said.

“It’s also interesting that every time we raise the issue of Mr Adani and crony capitalism, the Prime Minister comes out with some dramatic new diversion tactic,” he added.

Rahul spoke of the unemployment crisis and soaring prices, arguing that Modi broke the back of small and medium enterprises with decisions like demonetisation and a flawed GST. The Congress leader talked about Gautam Adani for the first time on foreign soil, explaining how two-three people were now controlling India’s entire infrastructure.

Rahul welcomed the G20 summit being hosted in India and said that the Opposition’s position on the Ukraine war would be more or less the same as the stand the Modi government has taken.

Asked about Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who is leader of Opposition and has the rank of cabinet minister, not being invited to the G20 dinner, Rahul said: “This tells you something. They don’t value the leader of 60 per cent of India’s population. People should think about it. Why they (the government) are feeling the need to do it, what is the thinking behind it?”

The Congress leader is on a six-day tour of Europe and is meeting the leaders there as well as the Indian diaspora.