BJP proposing elimination of Indian Constitution: Rahul Gandhi in Berlin

In a sweeping critique delivered on an international stage, Congress leader and leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of steering India towards the “elimination of the Constitution” — a foundational charter, he said, that enshrines equality, pluralism and democratic balance.

Speaking to students at Berlin’s prestigious Hertie School during his visit to Germany last week, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the ruling party has launched a full-scale assault on India’s democratic architecture by capturing the country’s institutional framework and bending it to serve its political ambitions.

The hour-long interaction, released by the Congress on Monday under the title “Politics is the Art of Listening”, casts India’s democratic crisis as a matter of global concern.

Describing India as the world’s largest and most complex democracy, Rahul Gandhi warned that any erosion of its democratic fabric reverberates far beyond its borders. “Indian democracy is not merely a national asset,” he said. “It is a global public good. An attack on it is an attack on the global democratic system itself.”

At the heart of his charge lay the Constitution. Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP’s political project amounts to dismantling its central ethos — the equality of citizens, languages, religions and states. “What is being proposed,” he said, “is the elimination of the very idea that every individual carries the same value.”

Rahul Gandhi argued that the Opposition’s struggle transcends electoral arithmetic. “We are not merely fighting the BJP,” he told the students. “We are resisting the capture of India’s institutional structure.” While acknowledging challenges in the electoral process, he stressed that the Opposition would build a resilient system of democratic resistance capable of confronting what he described as a weaponisation of state institutions.

He claimed that key bodies meant to act as neutral guardians of democracy are failing to perform their constitutional roles. “There is a full-scale assault under way,” he alleged, pointing to what he called the systematic takeover of institutions.

Drawing a historical parallel, Rahul Gandhi noted that while Europe laboured to forge unity through the European Union, India achieved an economic and political union at Independence in 1947 — anchored firmly in its Constitution. Undermining that framework, he suggested, threatens not just India but democratic ideals worldwide.

Turning his fire on recent elections, Rahul Gandhi asserted that the Congress had decisively won Haryana, while expressing doubts over the fairness of the Maharashtra polls. He also accused central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation of being turned into political instruments. “These institutions were built for the nation,” he said, “not for the ownership of any one party.”

The Congress leader further criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic vision, claiming it merely extended the framework laid down by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and had now reached a point of stagnation. “What is being attempted economically,” he argued, “is jammed.”

On the INDIA bloc, Rahul Gandhi acknowledged tactical differences among alliance partners but underscored ideological unity in opposing the RSS worldview. “When it comes to resisting laws we disagree with, unity emerges every single day in Parliament,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi concluded by reaffirming that the Opposition’s contest with the BJP is not just a battle for power, but a fight to reclaim India’s democratic soul.

With PTI inputs