NEW DELHI: Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi, the BJP on Friday accused him of "blaming" Indian democracy and its institutions for the Congress' repeated defeat in polls under him and the ongoing ED probe against him in the National Herald case.
Shortly after Gandhi's press conference here, former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress leader made "shameful and irresponsible" comments and noted that it was his grandmother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi who had suspended people's democratic rights by imposing Emergency.
The former Congress president had earlier alleged that India is witnessing the "death of democracy" and anybody who stands against the government's dictatorship is "viciously attacked".
Slamming him, Prasad said, "Stop demeaning the institutions of India to safeguard your corruption and misdeeds. If people don't listen to you why are you blaming us."
If people saw dictatorship, it was during the Emergency when people, including opposition leaders and editors, were jailed, judges superseded and censorship imposed.
Indira Gandhi had then spoken about having "committed judiciary," he said.