Congress President Rahul Gandhi during a meeting with Indian-origin CEOs of Singaporean companies, in Singapore on Thursday. PTI Photo Congress President Rahul Gandhi during a meeting with Indian-origin CEOs of Singaporean companies, in Singapore on Thursday. PTI Photo

In a scathing attack on the Modi government, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said there is a general atmosphere of “intimidation” in the country and politics of dividing people are being played to win elections. “There is a particular type of politics that’s not only happening in India but in a number of places – of dividing people, of using (their) anger to win elections and that’s what is happening in India,” he said while speaking at a panel discussion at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

Talking about the situation in Kashmir, the Congress president said he realised in 2014 what a bad political decision can do to years of policy-making in the state. “In 2014 when I went to J&K I felt like crying. I saw what a bad political decision can to do years and years of policy-making,” he said.

The Congress chief also said that there is a challenge to the institutional structure of India. “If you ask me what am I proud about my country…It is the idea of plurality. It’s the idea that people in India can say anything they want, do anything they want and they won’t face any problem and that is being challenged…,” he said.

He also spoke about the recent controversy of four senior Supreme Court judges holding an unprecedented press conference. “They actually went out to the press and said listen we need the people to hear our voice because there is something fundamentally wrong,” said Gandhi.

“I don’t know if you know the details about the comments they (judges) were making but the centre of the issue is the case of (BJP president) Amit Shah. So, there is a challenge to the institutional structure of our country,” he said, apparently referring to the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

He alleged that there is a “very very aggressive and organised attack on the system and on the judiciary. If you speak to the press, if you talk to business people, they will also tell you that we feel intimidated. so there is a general atmosphere of intimidation.”

The Congress president said that the idea of India that Mahatma Gandhi envisioned was that an India where everybody is comfortable regardless of religion, community, regardless of state. “The idea that anybody coming to India, even the foreigner coming to India, feel comfortable in the country and that idea is being challenged now,” he asserted.

“Where we are running into trouble now is the levels of violence and anger that you are seeing in India and this to me is a syndrome,” he said, adding that “I’m proud to say that our vision is bringing people together.”

(With PTI inputs)

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