A month after BBC's propaganda piece on PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi targets India on 'democracy' in UK

As Congress losing its political relevance in the country, PM-aspirant Rahul Gandhi has continued to target democratically elected Modi government.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again taken an international platform to criticise his own country and throw wild allegations against the democratically-elected government.

Gandhi has raked up the Israeli spyware Pegasus issue during a lecture at Cambridge University claiming that he had been warned by the intelligence officers to be "careful" while speaking on the phone as his calls were being recorded, according to a report in ANI.

"I myself had Pegasus on my phone. A large number of politicians had Pegasus on their phones. I have been called by intelligence officers who told me, 'Please be careful about what you are saying on the phone because we are sort of recording the stuff. So this is the constant pressure that we feel. Cases (are being filed against) on the Opposition. I have got a number of criminal liable cases for things that should under no circumstances be criminal liable cases. That's what we are trying to defend," the Gandhi scion said in his address.

Unsubstantiated claims

The dejected Congress leader then claimed that constraints were being put on Parliament, the press and the judiciary in the country. "Everybody knows and it's been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space. The institutional framework which is required for a democracy - Parliament, free press, the judiciary... just the idea of mobilisation, moving around - all are getting constrained. So, we are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy," the Congress MP alleged.

To further drive home his points, Gandhi shared a picture of himself in the presentation slide in which he is seen being held by the police personnel and claimed that the Opposition leaders were "locked up" in jail for "just standing" in front of the Parliament House to talk about some issues.

"In the Constitution, India is described as a Union of States, and that Union requires negotiation and conversation. It is that negotiation that is under attack and threat. You can see the picture which was taken in front of Parliament House. The Opposition leaders were just standing there talking about certain issues, and we were put in jail. That's happened 3 or 4 times. It has happened relatively violently. You have also heard of the attacks on minorities and the press. You get a sense of what is going on," Rahul claimed.

The link of his speech was shared by Sam Pitroda, who was last year in the news for in a way justifying 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

What SC said on Pegasus issue

The Supreme Court-appointed committee, set up to look into the allegations of the government allegedly using Pegasus for snooping, had concluded that the spyware was not found in the 29 mobile phones examined by it, but the malware was found in five mobile phones. Reading the report of the committee, the SC Bench had said, "We are concerned about the technical committee report... 29 phones were given and in five phones some malware was found but the technical committee says it cannot be said to be Pegasus."

Gandhi had, in a similar manner, also tried to defame India at an overseas forum "Ideas For India" conclave in London in May last year.

Has Rahul's lecture any merit?

His lecture on democracy comes at a time when India successfully witnessed Assembly elections in the Northeastern States of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya where Congress could not even make its presence felt in any of the three States. Moreover, this was the first major election held after Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra where he and Congress allies tried to build a narrative that democracy was under attack in India.

The verdict in the election is a clear indication that people have rejected his narrative on the status of democracy in India. Ironically, the lecture comes from a man whose family member (former Prime Minister and his paternal grandmother Indira Gandhi) had imposed the draconian Emergency on the country to retain power unconstitutionally.

Will this have any impact?

Indians have repeatedly rejected his claims and he has to realise that. This is high time he stopped taking up an issue that is not going to politically benefit him or his party anymore.

However, his allegations might be used by some Western powers afraid of India's growth to tarnish the image of PM Modi whom his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni described as the "most popular leader in the world" only yesterday. Fine examples of it are the BBC's "propaganda" docuseries on PM Modi's role during 2002 post-Godhra carnage riots which was released in January this year and the anti-Modi rantings of business tycoon George Soros with regard to the Adani-Hindenburg row.