Hoshiarpur: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the BJP and the RSS of capturing institutions and putting pressure on the EC and the judiciary.
“There is a pressure on all the institutions. There is a pressure on the press, bureaucracy, the Election Commission, judiciary,” he charged.
“This is not a fight between one political party and another. It is now a fight between the institutions which were captured by them and the Opposition. Out of which one factor is EVM,” he said to a question on Electronic Voting Machines.
Normal democratic processes in the country are now “missing”, he claimed.
The former Congress chief also asserted that it is abundantly clear that economic distress, unemployment and price rise will deal a “severe blow” to the BJP in the upcoming elections in various states.
Mr Gandhi, whose Bharat Jodo Yatra is passing through Punjab, also took a swipe at the ruling AAP government in the state, saying Punjab should be run from Punjab only, not from Delhi.
"If it is run from Delhi, then people of Punjab will not accept it. It is not political but it is a fact," he said.
When asked that he has been attacking Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in his speeches, Gandhi said Hinduism or any other other religion does not talk about spreading hatred.
“Hindu religion is a peace loving religion, one which connects. So whatever colour they (on RSS saffron flag) want to adopt they can, but what is written in Hindu 'dharm', they do not do that, they do something else,” he said taking a dig at the RSS.
On RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent remarks that "it was natural for Hindus to be aggressive and Muslims should abandon the narrative of supremacy", Gandhi said, "I do not know which Hinduism he is quoting. I never heard this. I have read the Gita and Upnishads and I never heard that Hindus should be aggressive." "Hinduism is all about self-observation and about understanding the self, about humility. I do not know what he is talking about. Perhaps he has not read these books," he said.
“Even Lord Ram felt compassion for Ravana when he was dying. I do not know from where this gentleman was getting these ideas. Certainly, they are not Hindu ideas, they are RSS ideas,” he said.
To a question on farmers, Gandhi said there is a non-stop attack on farmers from multiple sides.
