Rahul vs BJP as Cong leader fires fresh salvo

IFS has completely changed and they don’t listen to anything — they are arrogant

RAHUL GAND

Congress leade

IFS has changed... No, it’s not arrogance. It is called defending national interest

S JAISHANKAR,

External affairs minister

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for carrying out a “systemic attack” on the country’s institutions, prompting a sharp retort from the BJP, which called him an “unsuccessful leader” who betrayed the country on foreign soil.

Addressing the Ideas for India conference in London on Friday, Gandhi said India’s voice has been crushed by the institutional framework of the country itself, which is becoming parasitical.

“What is happening today is that there is a systematic attack on the institutions that allow conversations to take place. There is an attack on the Constitution of India. The result of this attack is that the states of India are no longer able to negotiate with the government,” the former Congress president said.

“So, the deep state, the CBI, the ED, is now chewing the Indian state and eating it, much like in Pakistan,” he said, accusing the BJP of exercising “100 per cent control” over media, and broad control over the institutional framework.

On Saturday, the BJP hit back, accusing Gandhi of harming India in his “hate” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and alleged that his frequent critical remarks about the country from foreign soil amounted to “betrayal”.

Taking exception to Gandhi’s remark that the ruling party has spread “kerosene all over the country, you need one spark and we will be in big trouble”, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said that it is the Congress which has been carrying kerosene to incite riots since the 1984 anti Sikh violence. Bhatia dubbed Gandhi a “part-time, immature, unsuccessful leader of a hopeless Congress” who has often spoken negatively about the country in foreign places like the US, the UK and Singapore.

“He keeps making such comments frequently and it will not be wrong to say that this amounts to betraying the country,” Bhatia said.

The conference, organised by a think tank, Bridge India, also saw Gandhi toning down his rhetoric against regional parties.

“We have to coordinate with our friends in the Opposition. I don’t view the Congress as the