At Cambridge, Rahul Gandhi Heaps Praise On 'Aspiring Superpower' China, Its Belt And Road Initiative

Rahul Gandhi delivered the lecture 'Learning to Listen in the 21st Century' at the Cambridge Judge Business School on Tuesday evening as a Visiting Fellow, a video recording of which was posted on Twitter by Congress leader Sam Pitroda.

Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Gandhi was "hallucinating" and makes such claims as he wants to create headlines wherever he goes.

Rahul Gandhi is in a fresh controversy yet again over his speech at Cambridge University. Rahul not only claimed that Indian democracy is under attack but also heaped praise on China. One of the presentation slides as seen in his speech video shared by the Congress party, shows him referring to China as a 'Force of Nature' and 'Aspiring Superpower'. The slide also mentions the Belt and Road Initiative which passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and is opposed by the Government of India. 

Gandhi, who gave a presentation, noted that in the Constitution, India is described as a Union of States and that Union requires negotiation and conversation. He also showed slides on the screen of him being confronted by police officers outside Parliament in New Delhi. "It is that negotiation that is coming under attack and threat...You would have also heard about the attack on the minorities and press," he said, adding that protecting and defending Indian democracy is more than just about India but about defending the "democratic structure and democratic system on the planet".

"As the Opposition, it is very difficult to communicate with people when you have this type of an assault on the media, on the democratic architecture," he said, explaining the motivation behind his Bharat Jodo Yatra, a 4,081 km walk through 14 Indian states from September 2022 to January 2023 to draw attention to "prejudice, unemployment and growing inequality in India".

Gandhi recalled his student days at the university, which he said had given him a lot "in terms of knowledge and understanding".

The second strand of his lecture focussed on the "two divergent perspectives" of the US and China since World War II and the final strand was around the "Imperative for a Global Conversation", as he knitted the different strands together in a call for a new type of receptiveness to various viewpoints.

During his speech, Rahul Gandhi claimed that Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alleged during a lecture at Cambridge university, drawing sharp reactions from the BJP that accused him of maligning the country's image on foreign soil after facing successive electoral setbacks.

Gandhi delivered the lecture 'Learning to Listen in the 21st Century' at the Cambridge Judge Business School on Tuesday evening as a Visiting Fellow, a video recording of which was posted on Twitter by Congress leader Sam Pitroda, ex-adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The BJP on Friday also made light of Rahul Gandhi's allegation that he was being snooped upon, saying that the Congress leader was "hallucinating" and makes such claims as he wants to create headlines wherever he goes.

Hitting back on Gandhi, Union Minister Anurag Thakur wondered what prevented Gandhi and other Congress leaders from submitting their phones to a Supreme Court-appointed technical committee that probed the Pegasus snooping issue.

"We can understand his hatred towards the Prime Minister, but the conspiracy to malign the country on foreign soil with the help of foreign friends raises questions on the agenda of the Congress," Thakur, the Information and Broadcasting minister, told reporters in Delhi.

Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Gandhi was "hallucinating" and makes such claims as he wants to create headlines wherever he goes.

"What we can say for Rahul Gandhi's hallucinations. If he makes his (Congress) MoU with China public, we will be interested and the people of India will also like to know. Who is interested in his telephone conversations," he said. (With PTI Inputs)