This is an archive article published on May 20, 2018

Rahul identifies takeaway: Opposition will work in coordination to defeat BJP

Indicating that the Congress would try to rally the Opposition together, he said: “We are going to work with the Opposition to defeat the BJP... the Opposition will together, in coordination with each other, defeat the BJP.”

4 min readNew DelhiMay 20, 2018 06:09 AM IST First published on: May 20, 2018 at 04:59 AM IST

Rahul Gandhi says Opposition will work in coordination to defeat BJP

Rahul Gandhi at AICC headquarters in New Delhi Saturday. (Express Photo/Amit Mehra)

Minutes after B S Yeddyurappa resigned as Karnataka Chief Minister, Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. Addressing journalists at AICC headquarters, Rahul said the BJP has been “shown” that power and money are not everything in India and that the “will of the people” is supreme.

Indicating that the Congress would try to rally the Opposition together, he said: “We are going to work with the Opposition to defeat the BJP… the Opposition will together, in coordination with each other, defeat the BJP.”

Rahul said his “message to the Prime Minister is that the Prime Minister is not bigger than India, the Prime Minister not bigger than the people of India… Supreme Court… MPs and MLAs and the Prime Minister needs to stop thinking that he is bigger than every single institution in this country”.

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“The Prime Minister needs to understand that he has been chosen by the country to lead this country but not to disrespect the institutions of this country. I am doubtful that Prime Minister will understand that because he has been trained throughout his life by the RSS never to respect any other institution except the RSS,” he said.

He said the Congress and the JD(S) have shown the BJP and the RSS that “there are limits to your arrogance, there are limits to how you are trying to run the country. And I hope the BJP and the RSS learn a lesson from this that the institutions of this country, the will of the people of this country cannot be disrespected.”

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He said the Prime Minister had “directly authorised the buying, purchasing of MLAs in Karnataka, from our party and from the JD(S)” and argued “the idea that the Prime Minister spreads around the country that he is fighting corruption is a blatant lie”.

“He is corruption. He is doing everything to subvert this nation and he is doing it across the board. There are phone conversations of MLAs being attempted to be purchased by the BJP and that is directly authorised from Delhi.” He said the BJP, Modi and “murder-accused Amit Shah have been shown that institutions of the country are bigger than you and your money and power”.

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Rahul said BJP MLAs and the Speaker left the Assembly even before the national anthem was played. “In a way this is what we are fighting today. The idea that you can rubbish every single institution in this country, you can disrespect anybody in this country simply because you happen to be in power… There is no institution in this country that is worthy of the respect of the Prime Minister, Amit Shah and the RSS. And they believe that every single institution can be destroyed and stepped upon by them,” he said.

He said “the Prime Minister’s model of leadership is not that of a democratic person. It is that of a dictator. Everybody knows that. You know, I know that. Supreme Court knows that. Even the Prime Minister knows that”.

Asked whether Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala should resign, he said “it is a good idea that he resigns but I can guarantee you that under the BJP regime, the next man will do exactly the same thing”.

“Whether the Governor should resign or not, that is one issue but there is a bigger issue here. The bigger issue is that there is no institution in this country that is immune today from the assault of the BJP-RSS. The Governor, with all due respect, has no choice. Even if you make the Governor resign and replace him with a new man, that man will also behave the same as this man has behaved. It is because he has no power any more. The power is now completely controlled by the Prime Minister and by the RSS,” he said.