India has rejected BJP’s brand of hatred, will defeat party in upcoming elections: Rahul Gandhi in US

Rahul, who is slated to address a community rally at the Javits Centre in Manhattan on Sunday, said the BJP “tried everything in the book” to win the Karnataka elections, but failed. “They had the entire media, they had 10 times the amount of money we had, they had the government, they had the agency. They had everything and then we decimated them,” he said.

“It will be hard to find the BJP in Telangana after this election,” he said, referring to the state where the current Assembly’s term is due to end in January 2024. “It is not just the Congress party that is going to defeat the BJP. It is the people of India, the people of Madhya Pradesh, the people of Telangana, the people of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh who are going to defeat the BJP,” Rahul added.

Reiterating his “mohabbat ki dukaan” (shop of love) and “nafrat ka bazaar” (market of hate) motto from election campaigns, Rahul said that India has understood that it cannot “go forward with the kind of hatred BJP is spreading”. “That is what is going to happen in the next few states. And then after that in 2024 we will do the same…The opposition is united, we are all working together. It is an ideological battle. On one side, there is a divisive ideology of the BJP, the hate-filled ideology of the BJP. On the other side, there is the affectionate, loving ideology of the Congress party,” he said.

He said in Karnataka, the BJP tried to polarise the election and create anger and hatred between communities. “Prime Minister himself tried it. Did it work,” he said as the audience replied no. Rahul said the people of Karnataka declared that the election is about prices, unemployment and corruption.

Congress supporters, officials, party members and members of the diaspora gathered in large numbers at the community event that was also attended by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams said the “New Delhi of America is right here in New York City.” “This community is one of the most highly-educated, one of the most highly business operated and owned,” he said, adding that what is unique about America is that, “we tell you never give up your homeland as you embrace your adopted land,” amid a round of applause and cheers from those gathered.

Earlier in the day, Rahul “had a thought-provoking fireside chat” with leading thinkers of New York at Roosevelt House, home of former US President, Franklin D Roosevelt.

Rahul said the members of the diaspora in the US are “our ambassadors” and have shown America and the rest of the world “what it means to be Indian.” He said there is a fight going on back home and a similar fight also in America about two different visions for India. “One vision which is our vision – accepts everybody, embraces everybody, respects everybody, loves everybody, and wants everybody to be a part of the future of our country regardless of their religion, their community, their caste, their language.

Addressing the audience and the diaspora at the event, Rahul said: “You respect other religions. You respect other cultures. You respect other people, you respect women. And that is the best way to fight the BJP, to live according to the ideology that we believe in,” he said, adding that the fight is not difficult.

Rahul arrived in New York on Saturday after visiting Washington and San Francisco. His US trip comes weeks ahead of Modi’s scheduled visit to the country later this month.

Beginning his US three-city tour in California on May 31, Rahul has taken a swipe at the ruling BJP government, saying it is “threatening” the people and “misusing” the country’s agencies. Speaking at an event in Santa Clara, California, he said the BJP and the RSS are controlling all the instruments of politics in India. “The BJP is threatening people and misusing government agencies. The Bharat Jodo Yatra started because all the instruments that we needed to connect with the people were controlled by the BJP-RSS,” he said.

He added that there are people in India who think they know more than God and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “one such specimen”.

On June 1, while responding to a questions by one of the students at the Stanford University Campus in California, Rahul asserted that India cannot be pushed around by China as he underlined that the relationship between the two neighbours is going to be “tough” and not an easy one. To a question on his disqualification as an MP, he said he did not imagine his disqualification from Lok Sabha was possible when he joined politics but asserted that it has given him a “huge opportunity” to serve the people.

At the National Press Club in Washington, Rahul said the Opposition is pretty well united and a lot of good work is happening on the ground as he asserted that there is a hidden undercurrent building and it will “surprise” the people in the next general elections. He also said that Indian democracy is a “global public good” and its “collapse” will have an impact on the world and is not in America’s national interest.

With inputs from PTI