Shashi Tharoor warns of ‘an India where people are scared to speak on phone’, says BJP feels it has ‘place in your bedroom’

“…Or do you want, instead, an India where people are free to express their views, free to eat what they want, to dress as they wish, to love whom they like, or are you prepared to accept a government that feels it has a place in your bedroom, in your kitchen, in your safe, in your dining room? Because that’s the kind of government we have in India today,” he said.

He alleged that the autonomous institutions created to protect democracy – “from the Information Commission to the Election Commission, judiciary, free press, RBI” – all had their autonomy “hollowed out”.

He appealed to the people to vote for Captain Viriato Fernandes, Congress’s Lok Sabha candidate from South Goa.

“When the BJP talks about ‘ab ki baar 400 paar’, we ask why? The only argument for having such a large majority is to be able to amend the Constitution…We are hearing a party devoted not to the idea of everyone’s equality, but to the slogan of ‘Hindi, Hindutva, Hindustan’ – a monolithic idea of India. They want one nation, one election, one party, one leader, one religion, one God. They want everything to be one, and of course, for there to be one ruler to control all of this,” he said.