India ‘no longer a democracy’ under BJP rule, says Rahul Gandhi at Bharat Summit

• Rahul Gandhi says India is “no longer a democracy”, questioning electoral legitimacy and the influence of business interests.

• At the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad, he says the Union government prevented foreign delegates from attending.

• The Congress leader calls for protecting democracy through truth, non-violence and love.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said India was “no longer a democracy”, targeting the BJP over the electoral system and the influence of business interests while calling for a peaceful campaign to defend democratic rights.

Addressing the Telangana government-hosted Bharat Summit in Hyderabad, Gandhi said the survival of Indian democracy mattered to democratic movements across the world.

“It is important for the democratic movement on the planet that India remains a democracy,” he said, adding that the Congress had found and demonstrated that the country no longer functioned as one.

Questioning electoral legitimacy, Gandhi asked how an election could be considered valid if the Election Commission declared 140 million voters illegal.

He traced the change in India’s political landscape to 2014, saying the Congress had faced an entirely different kind of election campaign, with millions of dollars entering the political system. He said his party’s examination of these developments showed that democracy had been destroyed that year.

Gandhi also criticised the concentration of economic and political power, saying people lost their voice when a handful of businessmen controlled the government.

Describing Indian democracy as a global public good, he said the world needed it to survive.

The Congress leader apologised to overseas delegates who could not attend the summit, saying the Union government had prevented their participation. Their absence, he added, offered an indication of the conditions the opposition faced in India.

Calling for a response grounded in peaceful democratic action, Gandhi said the struggle would be conducted without hatred, fear or anger, relying instead on truth, non-violence and love.

With PTI inputs