Centre snooping on me, claims Rahul in UK; BJP calls declare ‘hallucination’

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who’s on a week-long journey to the UK, on Friday claimed that he — together with a number of different Opposition leaders — is beneath surveillance and that democracy is beneath assault in India.

The remarks, made throughout a lecture at Cambridge University, drew sharp reactions from the BJP, which accused the Congress chief of maligning the nation’s picture on overseas soil after going through successive electoral setbacks.

Delivering a lecture on the Cambridge Judge Business School on ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st century’, Rahul mentioned there’s a fixed assault on the media and on the democratic structure in India.

“Indian democracy is under pressure and is under attack. I am an Opposition leader and we are navigating that space. What is happening is that the institutional framework which is required for a democracy — Parliament, a free press, the judiciary — the idea of mobilisation… these are all getting constrained,” he mentioned.  

Rahul additionally claimed that he has been warned by Intelligence Bureau officers about his cellphone conversations being recorded. “I myself had Pegasus on my phone… I have been called by Intelligence officers who tell me, ‘be careful of what you are saying on the phone because we are recording the stuff’. This is the constant pressure that we feel,” he mentioned.

Showing {a photograph} of a protest by Opposition leaders in entrance of Parliament House, Rahul mentioned Opposition voices have been muffled and so they have been arrested for elevating points. “That picture is taken in front of Parliament House. That is where a group of Opposition MPs were talking about certain issues and we were just put in jail,” he added.

Reacting to Rahul’s accusations, Union minister Anurag Thakur questioned what prevented him and different Congress leaders from submitting their telephones to a Supreme Court-appointed technical committee that probed the Pegasus snooping difficulty. “Pegasus is not in Rahul Gandhi’s phone but in his mind,” he added.

BJP’s Tom Vadakkan mentioned Rahul might have made such remarks to hog headlines. “What we can say for his hallucinations. Who is interested in his conversations? If he makes his MoU with China public, we will be interested,” he mentioned.

NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who’s on a week-long journey to the UK, on Friday claimed that he — together with a number of different Opposition leaders — is beneath surveillance and that democracy is beneath assault in India.

The remarks, made throughout a lecture at Cambridge University, drew sharp reactions from the BJP, which accused the Congress chief of maligning the nation’s picture on overseas soil after going through successive electoral setbacks.

Delivering a lecture on the Cambridge Judge Business School on ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st century’, Rahul mentioned there’s a fixed assault on the media and on the democratic structure in India.googletag.cmd.push(perform() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

“Indian democracy is under pressure and is under attack. I am an Opposition leader and we are navigating that space. What is happening is that the institutional framework which is required for a democracy — Parliament, a free press, the judiciary — the idea of mobilisation… these are all getting constrained,” he mentioned.  

Rahul additionally claimed that he has been warned by Intelligence Bureau officers about his cellphone conversations being recorded. “I myself had Pegasus on my phone… I have been called by Intelligence officers who tell me, ‘be careful of what you are saying on the phone because we are recording the stuff’. This is the constant pressure that we feel,” he mentioned.

Showing {a photograph} of a protest by Opposition leaders in entrance of Parliament House, Rahul mentioned Opposition voices have been muffled and so they have been arrested for elevating points. “That picture is taken in front of Parliament House. That is where a group of Opposition MPs were talking about certain issues and we were just put in jail,” he added.

Reacting to Rahul’s accusations, Union minister Anurag Thakur questioned what prevented him and different Congress leaders from submitting their telephones to a Supreme Court-appointed technical committee that probed the Pegasus snooping difficulty. “Pegasus is not in Rahul Gandhi’s phone but in his mind,” he added.

BJP’s Tom Vadakkan mentioned Rahul might have made such remarks to hog headlines. “What we can say for his hallucinations. Who is interested in his conversations? If he makes his MoU with China public, we will be interested,” he mentioned.