India’s BJP accused of imposing ‘suffocating ideology on 1.3b people’

New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a scathing attack on India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of imposing a “suffocating ideology on 1.3 billion people.”

“The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is going to war with the people. For BJP, reimagining India means to shut the imagination of Indians,” Gandhi told a gathering of business leaders at “The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit” in New Delhi.

He said the government exercised monopoly over everything and did not believe in having any form of conversation with the opposition.

“This dispensation believes knowledge lies with them, understanding lies with them alone. They don’t believe that they need to have a conversation. There needs to be a conversation that provides the vision going forward. And that is exactly what is missing,” Gandhi said.

He also wondered why his visits to temples infuriated the BJP.

“My temple visits have nothing to do with ‘Hindutva.’ I cannot understand why I cannot go to a temple or a church or a ‘gurdwara.’ BJP thinks only they can go to temples. They have a sense of monopoly in everything they deal with, monopoly on all institutions, on who goes to temples,” he said.

Gandhi said his attempts at conversation with the government were always met resistance from the top leaders.

“The people in charge are convinced that they have a monopoly on knowledge. They are convinced that they are the only ones who understand. That no one in this country understands anything about India or the dreams of its people except them. What is a country if there isn’t a conversation,” he said.

Attacking the government over demonetisation and introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Congress chief said the administration failed to build any institution in its last four-and-a-half-year rule.

“I underline the difference between Congress and BJP. For us, India is a partnership between all its peoples. Unlike BJP, Congress does not believe in binaries,” he said.

He accused Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of not listening to his advice on the Kashmir issue.

“Many a time I have attempted conversation, but have been snubbed. Once Jaitley came to see me and I started a conversation on Kashmir, this was before the violence started up. I said we have a serious problem coming up in the Valley and his answer was ‘no, there is not’,” Gandhi said.

Regarding the ‘Aadhaar’ scheme he said, under the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, it was a means to simplify people’s life — unlike at present where it has been turned into a sort of “surveillance tool.”

“The difference between them and us is that we trust people. The Aadhaar introduced by us was never meant for surveillance,” Gandhi said.