Boston: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s attacks on India’s election system came under harsh criticism on Monday.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that Gandhi’s repeated attempts to malign India’s democracy and spread false statements on foreign land deserve strong condemnation.
“His actions reflect the frustration of repeatedly losing elections”, he said in a post X while reacting to Gandhi’s remarks in Boston against the Election Commission.
Gandhi, whose party was soundly rejected by voters in last year’s Maharashtra election, winning just 16 seats, said, “It is very clear to us that the Election Commission is compromised, and it is very clear that there is something wrong with the system.”
The BJP posted on X, “Every foreign trip of Rahul Gandhi follows the same script: land, defame India, question democracy, return. His tours have become nothing more than anti-India events.”
Repeating his party’s alibi for its defeat, Gandhi claimed, “More people voted in the Maharashtra Assembly elections than there are adults in Maharashtra.”
He asserted that the high voter turnout was impossible and that the Election Commission refused to share videos or information with his party.
Union Minister Prahlad Joshi said on X, “Such repeated attacks clearly reflect his deep-rooted anti-India mindset. No responsible leader maligns their own country on global platforms. Rahul Gandhi’s obsession with criticising India overseas is disgraceful. He owes an apology to the nation.”
Gandhi’s criticism of the Indian election system is selective. The Election Commission has demonstrated its credibility with the victory of the Congress Party in Karnataka, where Gandhi’s party formed the government.
Gandhi did not criticise the election machinery in Karnataka or in Haryana, even though the Congress lost that state, but less drastically than in Maharashtra.
He arrived in Boston on Saturday and met with supporters and the Overseas Indian Congress on Sunday.
He is scheduled to speak at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, at an event billed as ‘Conversation with Rahul Gandhi’ at the Saxena Centre for Contemporary South Asia.
(IANS)
