“Do not think we are fighting a fair fight. If you believe we are fighting against a political organization called BJP and RSS, they have captured almost every institution in our country. We are now fighting not just the BJP and RSS, but the Indian state itself,” Gandhi said while addressing the party members on the occasion of the inauguration of the new AICC HQ in New Delhi.
He further showed distrust in the recently happened Maharashtra state assembly elections saying that “something went wrong in the Maharashtra elections.”
Do not think we are fighting a fair fight. If you believe we are fighting against a political organization called BJP and RSS, they have captured almost every institution in our country. We are now fighting not just the BJP and RSS, but the Indian state itself.
— Congress (@INCIndia) January 15, 2025
I clearly stated… pic.twitter.com/rJuSgD6tuK
“We are uncomfortable with the way the Election Commission operates. The sudden appearance of almost one crore new voters between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra is problematic. It is the Election Commission’s duty to provide a voters’ list with the names and addresses of those who voted in the Vidhan Sabha election. However, the Election Commission has refused to provide this information,” he alleged.
Further, he stated that every congressman must keep in mind that the election system in India operates in a very non-favorable manner to the party. “There is a serious problem with our election system, and it is the Election Commission’s duty to be transparent,” he claimed.
“Why would the Election Commission refuse to make the voters’ list transparent? What purpose does it serve by not providing us with the list, and why are they withholding it? It is the Election Commission’s duty to provide transparency, and it is their sacred responsibility to explain why this has happened,” he added.
He also slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for allegedly saying that India didn’t gain true independence in 1947. “Mohan Bhagwat’s audacious comment that India didn’t gain true independence in 1947 is an insult to our freedom fighters, every single Indian citizen, and an attack on our Constitution,” Gandhi said.
Mohan Bhagwat’s audacious comment that India didn’t gain true independence in 1947 is an insult to our freedom fighters, every single Indian citizen and an attack on our Constitution. pic.twitter.com/6sMhdxn3xA
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 15, 2025
He called RSS ‘a shady hidden organization’ and said that the ruling party wants just one man to rule over the nation. “It is the fight between our idea and the RSS’s idea. Our idea says India is a union of states. I saw in the building [Indira Bhawan] that all Indian languages are displayed. It shows there is no superior language and no superior culture,” he was quoted as saying.
He also alleged that Bhagwat attacked the Constitution. “Every day, they are attacking the ideas we believe in. The BJP and the RSS have captured every institution. We are fighting BJP, RSS, and the Indian state itself,” he said.
It is crucial to note that Bhagwat’s comments made in Indore were widely misinterpreted. On January 14th, at an event in Indore, he said that India got true independence after the Ram Mandir was consecrated.
“After India got political independence from the British on August 15, 1947, a written Constitution was made according to the path shown by that specific vision, which comes out of the ‘self’ of the country, but the document was not run according to the spirit of the vision at that time,” he said.
#WATCH | Indore, Madhya Pradesh | RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat says, "…The true independence of India, which had faced many centuries of persecution, was established on that day (the day of Ram Temple's 'Pran Pratishtha'). India had independence but it was not established…"… pic.twitter.com/swrpc4T809
— ANI (@ANI) January 14, 2025
Controversy erupted after his comments were misconstrued. One of the RSS functionaries confirmed to the media that “Bhagwat referred to the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Mandir as a day of “Swa Ka Jagaran” (self-awakening) and “Pratistha Dwadashi” (symbolizing the establishment of sovereignty), not as a comparison to Independence Day.”
“The speech was in contention of Bhagwat ji’s idea of Bharat’s awakening. Ayodhyay was invaded, and our ancient culture and tradition, our temples, were destroyed. The act of invasion affected Bharat’s pride, dignity, and vitality. Reclaiming our land and establishing the Ram temple there is akin to the re-establishment of Ram Rajya. This is about Bharat’s awakening; it is also about reclaiming our pride. That is why he called the day Pratistha Dwadashi,” the RSS functionary said.
Notably, this is not the first time when Rahul Gandhi has attacked the BJP and RSS over the election. Congress has in the past attacked the election commission and its poll process several times after losing particularly slated elections. For instance, during the Lok Sabha elections, he claimed that the Election Commission did what it had to do to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister for the third time.
“The Election Commission was doing what they wanted. The entire campaign was structured so that Modi could carry out his agenda across the country, with different designs for different states,” he said healing Congress for fighting elections with alleged frozen bank accounts.
In December 2024 also, he claimed that there was a big change in the voter list in Maharashtra amid the polls and that the EC was not providing any information on it. However, the INDI Alliance won elections in Jharkhand during the same time and suddenly found no fault in the poll system.
In 2023, he was issued notice by the ECI for making derogatory comments against PM Narendra Modi, including his ‘Panauti’ comment blaming Modi for India’s defeat to Australia in the Cricket World Cup final. The notice was issued based on complaints by the BJP leaders. The poll panel further also cited Supreme Court orders asking politicians not to use derogatory and abusive language against opponents.
In 2019, Gandhi had again blamed the ECI for acting biased in favor of the BJP. Rahul Gandhi said that the election commission had cowered to the pressures put by the Narendra Modi government and had become biased against the opposition.
Reportedly, Gandhi has always had issues with the EVMs and the election process in India. Interestingly, the fake issues against ECI are only raised by the party after it has faced defeats in the elections. In the given case also, Gandhi is showing major distrust in ECI after brutally losing the Maharashtra elections. However, ECI or EVMs are not blamed by the party in the case of the Jharkhand elections where the BJP lost. Further, had INDI Alliance won the elections even in Maharashtra, the Congress certainly wouldn’t have questioned the poll system and the ECI.