Indian democracy broken from last 10 years, now it is fighting back: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi criticizes Indian democracy's weakening over the past decade, but expresses hope for its revival and resilience.

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has alleged that democracy in India for the last 10 years was broken, but now it is fighting back.

Mr. Gandhi made these remarks on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) while talking to reporters at a news conference, in Washington, at the National Press Club.

“I can say to you that Indian democracy for the last 10 years was broken. It's fighting back, but it was broken,” Mr. Gandhi said.

“I have seen the government of Maharashtra just being taken away from us. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've watched it, as our legislators have been bought in and hooked off and suddenly became BJP legislators. So Indian democracy has been under attack, has been very badly weakened, and now it's fighting back. And I'm confident that it'll fight back,” Mr. Gandhi said.

“If you see the election results, does it give you more hope for a democracy in India?” he was asked.

“Yeah, I mean, it does. But it's not good enough to say that the Indian voter is resilient and knowledgeable. Because, the Indian voter is informed by a whole set of structures. So, if we don't have a level-playing field, the voter might be very knowledgeable and resilient. It doesn't really matter,” he said.

“We fought an election with our bank accounts frozen. I don't know any democracy where that's happened. Maybe that type of thing happened in Syria or used to happen in Iraq. But we literally sat during our election and spoke to our treasurer and he says, well, we have no money. Now, you can have a resilient voter. You still need to run campaigns. You still need to have conversations. You still need to have meetings,” he said.