Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that the United States has been silent on "what is happening in India". He said this while speaking about the vision of democracies in the world.
Mr Gandhi went on to say that "I fundamentally believe that America is a profound idea, the idea of freedom the way it is encapsulated in your constitution...But you have to defend that idea."
Rahul Gandhi said this during an online discussion with former US Ambassador Nicholas Burns, now a professor with the country's Harvard Kennedy School. Mr Gandhi said, "I don't hear anything from the US establishment on what is going on here in India." He said this while Mr Burns was speaking about the ideas of democracy against the "harsh vision being offered by China and Russia".
Interjecting Mr Burns, Rahul Gandhi said, "I don't hear anything from the US establishment about what is happening here in India. If you are saying 'partnership of democracies', what is your view on what is going on here? I fundamentally believe that America is a profound idea, the idea of freedom, the way it is encapsulated in your constitution, it's a very powerful idea. But you have to defend that idea. And that is the real question."
During the discussion Mr Gandhi also alleged that a "wholesale capture" of India's institutional framework by the ruling dispensation has changed the paradigm in which opposition parties operate post-2014 as the institutions that are supposed to support a fair political fight do not do so anymore.
"To fight elections, I need institutional structures, I need a judicial system that protects me, I need a media that is reasonably free, I need financial parity, I need a set of institutional structures that allow me to operate as a political party. I do not have them," Mr Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi claimed that the manner in which the BJP is behaving, a lot of people are getting discontented very fast and there is a need to bring these people together.
During the online discussion, Mr Gandhi also answered a question on what he would do if he was to be Prime Minister of India. He said he would focus more on creating jobs than purely "growth-centric" policies.
"I would move from just a growth-centric idea to a job-centric idea. I would say, we need growth but we are going to do everything to push production and job creation and value addition," he said in response to a question during an online discussion.
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