Rahul Gandhi launches fresh attack on BJP, says it's a fight between courage and cowardice
London (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched a fresh attack on the BJP, saying he is not afraid of the criticism against him as he asserted that it's a fight between courage and cowardice, and love and hatred.
Gandhi, who is in London as part of a week-long visit to the UK, made the remarks during his interaction with the Indian diaspora, organised by the Indian Overseas Congress here.
"The more they attack me, the better that is for me, because the more I understand... It's a fight between courage and cowardice. It's a fight between respect and disrespect, between love and hatred. As I said during the Yatra: nafrat ke bazaar mein, hum mohabbat ki dukaan kholne aaye hain (in a market of hatred, we want to set up a shop that spreads love)," he said, amid applause.
The 52-year-old Congress MP said he had been invited to deliver a lecture at the University of Cambridge and expressed his regret that an Indian political leader is unable to similarly freely address a university in India.
"It was a nice atmosphere (at Cambridge University) and it made me think, that an Indian political leader can give a talk at Cambridge University, Harvard University but he can't give a talk in an Indian university," said Gandhi, who was greeted with cheers and slogans of zindabad as thousands gathered for the conference themed around "Unity, Diversity and Inclusion".
"The reason is that our government simply does not allow any idea of the Opposition, any concept of the Opposition to be discussed. The same happens in Parliament House when there are important things we need to speak about, like demonisation, GST, the fact that the Chinese are sitting inside our territory we are not allowed to raise them in the House," he said, amid chants of "shame, shame" from the estimated 2,000-strong crowd.
"It's shameful but it's true and this is not the India that all of us are used to. Our country is an open country, a country where we pride ourselves on our intelligence, respect each other's opinions, listen to each other and that atmosphere has been destroyed," he said.
Gandhi went on to reiterate that he was forced to undertake his Bharat Jodo Yatra', starting down south in Kanyakumari and walking around 4,000-km all the way up to Kashmir in the north of India, because all the institutions that protect democracy and allow an expression of voice have been "captured by the BJP".
He said his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' was demonstrating to the whole country what the real India is about.
"What Indian values are? What our religions tell us? What our different languages tell us? What our different cultures tell us (that) we are one country with many, many different ideas. And we have the capability of living together harmoniously without hatred without anger without disrespect. And it's when we do that, we are successful. And that was the message of the Yatra," he said.
He switched between English and Hindi during his address and once again revived his concerns over India-China relations.
Attacking the BJP, the former Congress president said, "On the other side, we have an ideology of hatred and violence, a disrespectful ideology that attacks people because of their ideas. And you must have noticed one thing that this is in the nature of BJP and the RSS."
"If you notice the statement of the Foreign Minister, he said China is much more powerful than us. To think China is more powerful than us, how can I pick a fight with them? At the heart of the ideology is cowardice," he said, referring to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's reported remarks during an interview.
The BJP has accused Gandhi of maligning India on foreign soil while praising China.
Gandhi's remarks at Cambridge University that Indian democracy is under attack and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance, has triggered a political slugfest with the BJP accusing him of denigrating India and asking if Gandhi was working as an agent on the payroll of an agency to bring down the country.
The event was organised by the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter, which introduced Gandhi as the "next prime minister of India" and called upon the diaspora supporters to back the party's vision unleashed by the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
"No one has accomplished such a long yatra and looking ahead to 2024 (general elections), the diaspora will play a major role in it. And, by filling this largest hall available in west London from different parts of the UK, that support is visible today," said IOC UK President Kamalpreet Dhaliwal.
"India's future lies in the idea of India that the Congress party has," added Sam Pitroda, adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Gandhi is set to conclude his UK tour this week with an event in the House of Commons complex hosted by UK Opposition Labour Party veteran Indian-origin MP Virendra Sharma and will also address the Chatham House think tank in London on geopolitical issues.
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BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.
Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.
The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.
In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.
"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."
The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.
The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.
"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.
Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.
After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.
In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.
In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.
