During an interaction with students and academics in Paris, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to gain power at any cost and said that there was nothing Hindu about their actions.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that India and Bharat are both acceptable names for the country and claimed that their coalition name INDIA might have irritated the ruling government a little bit.
During an interaction with students and academics in Paris, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to gain power at any cost and said that there was nothing Hindu about their actions.
On Saturday, at the Sciences PO University in Paris, a leading social sciences institution in France, the 53-year-old Opposition leader covered a broad range of topics such as his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the Opposition alliance’s fight to defend India's democratic structures, changing global order and other key issues.
He stressed that the Opposition was committed to fighting for the "soul of India” and the country would “come out just fine” from the current “turbulence”.
Rahul Gandhi while speaking to the audience said, "I've read the ‘Gita’, I've read a number of the Upanishads, I've read many Hindu books; there is nothing Hindu about what the BJP does, absolutely nothing,” said Gandhi, in response to a question about the rise of “Hindu nationalism” in the country.
He shared a clip of the conversation he had with the audience, on Instagram where he can be heard saying, "I have not read anywhere, in no Hindu book, from no learned Hindu person have I ever heard that you should terrorise, harm people who are weaker than you. So, this idea, this word, Hindu nationalists, this is a wrong word. They're not Hindu nationalists. They have nothing to do with Hinduism. They are out to get power at any cost, and they will do anything to get power… They want dominance of a few people and that is what they are about. There is nothing Hindu about them."
The former Congress president asserted that 60% of India voted for the opposition parties while just 40% voted for the ruling party. He reportedly said, "So this idea that the majority community is voting for the BJP, this is a wrong idea. The majority community actually vote more for us than they vote for them".
On the India-Bharat row, Rahul said that in the Constitution, India is defined as "India that is Bharat, a union of states". Further, he said that he doesn't;t find an issue over the name change but claims that the Opposition parties naming their alliance INDIA might have 'irritated' the ruling government a little bit which might have aggravated this topic.
"So, these states have come together to form India or Bharat. The most important thing is that the voice of all the people who are included in these states is heard loud and clear and no voice is crushed or intimidated," he added.
The session in Paris, the second European city on his tour after Brussels, was moderated by Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, Director of the Centre of International Studies, and chaired by Arancha Gonzalez, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences PO.
Gandhi had a similar student interaction at INALCO University in the French capital before moving on to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.