Digvijaya Singh, Rajya Sabha member and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh (MP), defended Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's statements against the Central government issued in some foreign countries. Singh concurred with Gandhi that democracy was in danger in India. He added that India was fast becoming a fascist state.
Singh was interacting with Kishor Ajwani, managing editor of News18 India, during Lokmat National Conclave, held in New Delhi on Tuesday, supported by Government of Telangana. He was presented a memento by Vijay Darda, Chairman of Lokmat Editorial Board and former Rajya Sabha member. Earlier, he was welcomed by Devendra Darda, managing director of Lokmat Media Group.
The former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, said that activists were being jailed for months for just opposing the government. Sudha Bharadwaj, who had renounced her US citizenship to serve tribals in Chhattisgarh, had to remain behind bars for 3.5 years just because she participated in the Bhima Koregaon function. Journalist Siddique Kappan was in jail for 2 years just because he was going to Hathras to cover the rape case.
Rahul Gandhi's speech on Hindenburg case in Parliament was expunged from the record. All these were examples of fascism, he said.
Further defending Rahul, Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had criticised past governments in foreign countries on seven occasions. He mentioned the venues and the time when these statements were made. Further defending Rahul, Digvijaya Singh said the Congress leader had not violated any law nor had he gone against some article of the Constitution.
When pointed out that BJP was more popular than Congress, Digvijaya said that Congress' core votebank had remained intact but floating votes had been captured by BJP. Congress had not lost support of the masses was evident from the fact that it recently won the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and two bye-elections in West Bengal and Maharashtra. Moreover, whenever it formed government in some state, BJP poached Congress MLAs using money and threat of investigation agencies. Thus BJP was making a mockery of democracy.
While Digvijaya parried questions on whether Article 370 would be restored in Kashmir if Congress came to power, he stressed that its abolition was wrong. The proposal should have been sent by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
On why India should not become a Hindu Rashtra, he said that India is a diverse country and it would be a grave injustice to non-Hindus. Nepal was not a Hindu Rashtra despite 95% of its population following the religion. Singh pointed out that Pakistan, an Islamic state, was in dire straits.