Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that Narendra Modi would not be the prime minister a year from now as the “system that he once controlled is now shaken and collapsing internally”.
Speaking at an Adivasi Congress event in New Delhi, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party government could attempt to suppress growing public anger by imposing “something like an Emergency”.
He also said that an “economic tsunami” will hit the country because the Modi government had removed the economic safeguards that existed earlier.
“India’s protection system…a shock absorber from the international system…has been removed by the BJP,” Gandhi said. “Prices are increasing…India will undergo such an economic crisis that you have never ever witnessed in your lives.”
Gandhi also alleged that an “institutional revolt” was underway in India.
“The Election Commission is fully controlled…it has been fully controlled for the last three years,” he said. “Chief election commissioner is messaging me, head of intelligence system, senior judiciary…all are revolting [against the BJP government]...they are providing us information.”
He also said that the “system of control is collapsing internally”. He added that this was happening because the officials can see that “public pressure will be so severe that if we continue on this path, it will be a risk for us”.
“If the public can see that the election system is rigged...if the public gets angry, do you think the Election Commission will not be scared?” Gandhi said.
However, he added that the government “may try to suppress the public pressure and impose something like an Emergency”.
“But, we are now entering the second stage, as they were earlier in full control but are now losing control,” he said.
Gandhi unveiling new conspiracy theories, says BJP
Bharatiya Janata Party’s publicity chief Amit Malviya said that Gandhi was unveiling “a new conspiracy theory” every few months.
“First, democracy was over,” Malviya said on social media. “Then institutions were captured. Then election rigging. Now we are told that an Emergency is coming and an economic tsunami is around the corner.”
Malviya added: “At some point, one has to ask: is Rahul Gandhi interested in facts, or is he simply manufacturing fear and chaos because he cannot explain his party’s repeated electoral failures? The country has heard these predictions before. The problem is that none of them ever come true.”
The BJP leader claimed that Gandhi had said the chief election commissioner, intelligence chiefs, judges and institutions “have been secretly working for him for the last three years, constantly feeding him information”.
“Yet, despite having this extraordinary network, his party keeps losing elections and shrinking politically,” Malviya said. “Not a single allegation of election rigging has been proven in court. Not one.”
Malviya asked why Gandhi was “vehemently opposing” the special intensive revision of electoral rolls “if everyone has been working for [him] all this time”.
The video of Gandhi’s speech posted by the Congress and shared by Malviya did not show the Opposition leader as having claimed that officials and institutions had been working for him for three years.
Written by Sara Varghese and Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava and Sneha.
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