Full-scale assault on India’s institutions: Rahul

London: There is a “full-scale assault” on the democratic institutions of India and there are concerns in the European Union (EU) quarters over this attempt to “stifle” the country’s democratic structures, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday. Interacting with reporters at a media briefing in Brussels, Gandhi, who is on a European tour starting with Belgium, addressed a broad range of topics including the Russia-Ukraine conflict to say that the Opposition agrees with the government’s current position on the issue.

On India hosting the G20 Summit, Gandhi said it was a “good thing” and pointed to the lack of an invitation for Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to the event as reflective of a “type of thinking” from the government that “did not value the leader of 60 per cent of India’s population”.

Rahul said that the debate around the country’s name that erupted on social media following the G20 Summit invitations going out in the name of the “President of Bharat” are “panic reactions” and “distraction tactics” by the government. Gandhi also said such controversies seem to play out every time his party raises concerns of “crony capitalism”.

Congress MP claimed that the Opposition naming its alliance Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) has “disturbed” Modi enough that he wants a name change for the country. “I’m perfectly happy with the names that we have in our Constitution. India, that is Bharat, works perfectly well for me,” he said when asked which name he prefers. “But I think these, in a sense to me, are panic reactions. There’s a

little bit of fear in the government. These are distraction tactics,” he said. “We of course came out with the name I.N.D.I.A. for our coalition, and it’s a fantastic idea because it represents exactly who we are, we consider ourselves to be the voice of India and so the word works very well. But it’s obviously disturbed the Prime Minister enough that he wants to change the name of the country, which is absurd, but that’s what it is,” Gandhi said.