London:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today took a stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party government for promoting a private sector monopoly in the country and, through this concentration of capital, also controlling the media.

“I think it’s very dangerous for a company to control all airports, all ports, all infrastructure. It (the private sector monopoly) has never existed in this form. There has never existed with such a massive concentration of power and capital, another aspect that is choking the conversation because the current Indian government controls the media through this concentration of capital,” Mr Gandhi said at an event in London.

The former Congress Party president accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of “spreading kerosene across the country” and said: “You need a spark and we’re going to be in big trouble.” I think we must act responsibly as the opposition, the Congress in the country, aimed at bringing people, communities, states and religions together in harmony.”

“We need to cool this temperature down because if it doesn’t cool down, things can go wrong,” said the congress leader at the event, which was organized by non-profit think tank Bridge India.

He went on to say that there are two forms of governance in India, one that stifles voices and one that listens.

“Please realize what the BJP is doing is shouting and muffling voices. What we do is listen. They are two different things, they are two different designs a set of ideas down people’s throats, be it the communist idea or the RSS system. We’re not designed that way. We are designed to listen to the people of India and get their voice out and put it on the table,” he told Mr Gandhi, who attacks the BJP.

The Congress leader went on to say that the prime minister must have an attitude that “I want to listen” but “our prime minister doesn’t listen”.

Rahul Gandhi commended the efforts of the Congress Party in India, saying: “Congress, through its actions, has attacked the social systems (such as the caste system) in the country. We fundamentally believe that every single Indian should be given equal opportunities.”

“Trying to force the same idea that we pursued in the 1990s and 2000s isn’t going to work now. That’s what the government is doing today. The task of the opposition is really to give the people of India a new vision. an economic vision. Congress has the ideology at the national level. Congress is a structure that supports the opposition. The ideological battle that is taking place is between the national vision of the RSS and the national vision of Congress,” he said.

The Congress leader said: “This is no longer just a purely political struggle. We are now fighting against the institutional structure of the Indian state being conquered by one organization. The only way for us is to go to the great masses of Indian people.”

Gandhi further accused the BJP government in India of suppressing voices in the country, saying: “People tell us we should have a cadre like the BJP. And I tell them that the day we have a roster like the BJP, we will be the BJP. We are a party that listens to what the Indian people say. BJP smothers voices, we listen.”

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)