Rahul Gandhi's remark is attack on India's democracy: Shahnawaz Hussain
New Delhi: Hitting out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his tweet mentioning democracy does not prevail in India, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said the former's remark is an attack on democracy.
Speaking to ANI, Hussain said, "This is very insensitive and wrong on the part of a senior leader and former president of Congress Party. This kind of language against our democracy is wrong. With this kind of remark, he is damaging the image of India. It is an attack on our Democracy." He reiterated that India is a strong democratic country and the world acknowledges that.
"The statement that Rahul made gives ample proof that democracy exists in the country," added the BJP leader. "India is no longer a democratic country," tweeted Rahul Gandhi on Thursday referring to a report of Freedom House, a US-based watchdog. Gandhi also retweeted a post that reads, "India is now as autocratic as Pakistan and worse than Bangladesh." Earlier, India strongly reacted to US-based watchdog Freedom House, which in its latest report has downgraded India's status as a democracy and free society to partly free.
Freedom House in its report titled 'Freedom in the World 2021 - Democracy under Siege' said, "The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year, and their response to COVID-19 included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers."
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in its response said "India has robust institutions and well-established democratic practices, we do not need sermons especially from those who don't even get their basics right."
