BJP wants Congress leader Rahul Gandhi out of Indian parliament
Leader of India's opposition Congress party Rahul Gandhi greets supporters as he arrives at a public rally under snow in Srinagar, India-controlled Kashmir, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. AP - Mukhtar Khan
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In India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi could be expelled from parliament. Narendra Modi's BJP party wants to condition its return to Indian democratic life on an apology. He accused him of defaming India at a conference in Cambridge. For his part, Rahul Gandhi refuses to retract his remarks.
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From our correspondent in Bangalore, Como Bastin
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Parliament, free press and judiciary, political mobilizations, everything becomes controlled in India. We are facing an attack on the basic structure of democracy. That's what Rahul Gandhi said at Cambridge University in England, where he himself studied.
It took no less for Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party to accuse Rahul Gandhi of betraying India, especially on the soil of treacherous Albion. A parliamentarian from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) turned to the speaker of parliament to demand that Rahul Gandhi be expelled from the hemicycle, on the grounds that he had insulted the institutions on several occasions.
The right to criticize one's country
For the BJP, only a public mea culpa should allow Rahul Gandhi to sit again. An apology refused by the leader of the Congress, who asks to explain himself before Parliament and claims his right to criticize the authoritarian excesses of his country.
In all likelihood, Rahul Gandhi should be allowed to sit for now. But the case, which has taken on dramatic proportions, illustrates the pressure exerted on opponents in India. Anyone who criticises the BJP criticises the country and is therefore not worthy of speaking out.
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