It's obviously about time to take the bull by its horns. To assert in no
uncertain terms that to talk publicly of the ongoing grievous assaults on
"democracy", democratic institutions and norms is, by all means, a blow in
favour of and not against "democracy". It's an intrinsic and inalienable
part of the fight against the ongoing and intensifying assaults. It has got
to be done in every available space -- whether here or abroad.
There's no way it can be equated with Modi's ugly jibes against ("Old")
India, on foreign soil.
The Congress should, in fact, also come out with a white paper -- in
deliverable formats -- documenting the acts of undermining democracy and
its watchdog institutions.
I/II.
<<The Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some of his Union ministers,
including the defence minister Rajnath Singh, have demanded an apology from
Rahul Gandhi for allegedly maligning India in the United Kingdom and
seeking foreign intervention in restoring the crumbling structures of
Indian democracy. The matter has snowballed into a parliamentary impasse
over which House proceedings have been stalled for two consecutive days
since the beginning of the second part of the Budget session.
The treasury benches’ concerted attack stems from an all-round campaign
against Rahul Gandhi by the Bharatiya Janata Party across all platforms
ever since the Congress leader repeated some of his criticisms of the Union
government and its alleged misuse of power in his recent visit to the UK
where he interacted with journalists, academics, researchers, and civil
society activists.
The Congress, however, has said that an apology is not on the cards and
accused the BJP and the Union government of spinning Gandhi’s statements
for its political gains, and more importantly, deflecting attention from
the Adani controversy that has rocked the parliament for days now. What
exactly did Gandhi say in London?
Did he really ask for foreign countries to intervene in India’s internal
matters, as the defence minister claimed in the Lok Sabha?
Did he really “insult” India in London, as the Prime Minister claimed? The
short answer is no. Gandhi, in fact, only repeated his earlier criticism
against the Modi government. Take a look at Gandhi’s statements.
“Look, first of all, this is our problem (erosion of democratic
institutions under Modi); it is an internal problem and it is India’s
problem and the solution is going to come from inside, it is not going to
come from outside. However, the scale of democracy in India means that
democracy in India is a global public good. It impacts way further than our
boundaries,” Gandhi said to a question at the think tank Chatham House in
London. “If Indian democracy collapses, in my view, democracy on the planet
suffers a very serious, possibly fatal blow. So, it is important for you
too. It is not just important for us. We will deal with our problem, but
you must be aware that this problem is going to play out on a global scale.
It is not just going to play out in India and what you do about it is, of
course, up to you. You must be aware of what is happening in India — the
idea of a democratic model is being attacked and threatened,” he added.
However, the BJP particularly picked out one of his statements to allege
that Gandhi sought foreign intervention in India’s internal affairs –
something which, according to the BJP, compromised India’s autonomous
position in the world.>>
(Excerpted from: <
https://m.thewire.in/article/government/rahul-gandhi-uk-bjp-modi-rajnath-singh
>.)
II. Rahul Gandhi press briefing today.
When would that day come when Modi will do so as every past Prime Minister
used to do!?
<https://www.youtube.com/live/92uhSdhkf30>
It now also appears -- with the rapid shifts in narratives (ref. : <
https://twitter.com/MahuaMoitra/status/1636332117847339009>) and brazen
state complicity (ref.: <
https://twitter.com/pbhushan1/status/1635510558228353024>) -- that it's now
only a question of time for the under-the-breath query whether the money of
Modi himself is parked in the Adani business to become somewhat audible.
It can hardly be without any significance that Rahul Gandhi keeps
relentlessly repeating: Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai!?
To be sure, as yet no one has produced any tangible proof.
If and when one manages to do so, by that time the decibel level, in any
case, would be fairly high.
Just yesterday the opposition leaders' march to the ED headquarters only to
demand an investigation (ref.: <
https://mobile.twitter.com/Jairam_Ramesh/status/1635913157133697024/photo/>)
was
blocked with a massive deployment of forces (ref.: <
https://youtu.be/OMwgMZt_uME>).
The world witnessed.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Green Youth Movement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZg7HZ2Ne7y9564e-kVSk5iEVMDbcNYdQAcS_Gw0AZnRFQ%40mail.gmail.com.
