NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is on a week-long trip to the UK, on Friday claimed that he — along with several other Opposition leaders — is under surveillance and that democracy is under attack in India.
The remarks, made during a lecture at Cambridge University, drew sharp reactions from the BJP, which accused the Congress leader of maligning the country’s image on foreign soil after facing successive electoral setbacks.
Delivering a lecture at the Cambridge Judge Business School on ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st century’, Rahul said there is a constant assault on the media and on the democratic architecture in India.
“Indian democracy is under pressure and is under attack. I am an Opposition leader and we are navigating that space. What is happening is that the institutional framework which is required for a democracy — Parliament, a free press, the judiciary — the idea of mobilisation... these are all getting constrained,” he said.
Rahul also claimed that he has been warned by Intelligence Bureau officers about his phone conversations being recorded. “I myself had Pegasus on my phone... I have been called by Intelligence officers who tell me, ‘be careful of what you are saying on the phone because we are recording the stuff’. This is the constant pressure that we feel,” he said.
Showing a photograph of a protest by Opposition leaders in front of Parliament House, Rahul said Opposition voices have been muffled and they have been arrested for raising issues. “That picture is taken in front of Parliament House. That is where a group of Opposition MPs were talking about certain issues and we were just put in jail,” he added.
Reacting to Rahul’s accusations, Union minister Anurag Thakur wondered what prevented him and other Congress leaders from submitting their phones to a Supreme Court-appointed technical committee that probed the Pegasus snooping issue. “Pegasus is not in Rahul Gandhi’s phone but in his mind,” he added.
BJP’s Tom Vadakkan said Rahul may have made such remarks to hog headlines. “What we can say for his hallucinations. Who is interested in his conversations? If he makes his MoU with China public, we will be interested,” he said.