Rahul Gandhi Bharat Summit speech: ‘India no longer a democracy’, BJP hits back over foreign delegates

The Rahul Gandhi Bharat Summit speech in Hyderabad on Saturday carried a blunt claim: that India is no longer a democracy, PTI reported. The BJP answered the same day with charges of seeking foreign interference. Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition, spoke at the two-day summit held on 13 and 14 November, and BJP leaders have since called the event anti-India.

What Rahul Gandhi said at the summit

“It is important for the democratic movement on the planet that India remains a democracy and what we have found and proven is that India is actually no longer a democracy,” Gandhi said, according to PTI via ThePrint. He asked how an election can be legitimate if the Election Commission declares 140 million voters to be illegal. He also alleged that the Congress had discovered democracy was destroyed in India in 2014, saying a new type of campaign brought “millions of dollars” injected into the political system. Oneindia reported that he claimed the BJP’s assets had grown 11-fold over a decade.

How Pradeep Bhandari and Kishan Reddy responded

BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said in a post on X that Gandhi had become a “puppet of foreign powers & George Soros wanting instability in India”, ANI reported. Bhandari also wrote that “Rahul Gandhi wants Regime Change with Foreign help”. Union Minister Kishan Reddy, speaking to reporters at the BJP Telangana State Office, hit back at Gandhi for calling the Narendra Modi government fascist. He called the summit an anti-India event and the Congress a “real fascist party”, Deccan Herald reported. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey separately posted on X that the summit’s speakers “form a convergent Break India vector”, IANS reported.

What the European socialist leader told ANI

Giacomo Filibeck, secretary general of the Party of European Socialists, told ANI that “Democracy is under attack in India, and we need to defend it, and the best way to defend it is to stand by Rahul Gandhi and the Indian Congress Party”. The BJP cited the presence of foreign delegates as the basis for its charge of foreign interference.

Key numbers

• 140 million: voters Gandhi said the Election Commission had declared illegal, per PTI via ThePrint.
• 11-fold: Gandhi’s claimed rise in BJP assets over a decade, per Oneindia.
• 2014: the year Gandhi said democracy was destroyed in India, per PTI via ThePrint.

Background to the Rahul Gandhi Bharat Summit row

The row follows a week of sharp exchanges. NIS reported earlier that the BJP called the Hyderabad event anti-India and planned black flags for Rahul Gandhi, and that the BJP called his phone tapping claim baseless.

What happens next

The reports reviewed carry no Congress reply to the charge of seeking foreign interference, and no Election Commission response to the voter figure Gandhi cited. The summit ended on 14 November, so the next test of the Rahul Gandhi Bharat Summit row is whether either body answers in public.