'Saddam used to win polls too': Rahul Gandhi amplifies foreign report on Indian democracy

Former Congress President and MP from Wayanad in Kerala Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched an attack on the Central government over reports claiming decline of democracy in India. He also said Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi used to win elections as well. He made this remark during a conversation with Professor Ashutosh Varshney of Brown University. 

"Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi used to have elections. They used to win them. It wasn't like they weren't voting but there was no institutional framework to protect that vote," said Rahul Gandhi.

"My Mic was switched off in Parliament": Rahul Gandhi

"My mic was turned off in the Parliament in the middle of my speech. The essence of the Parliament is that I should be allowed to speak and when I am speaking it should be shown on TV to the country but the TV doesn't show what's going on in the Parliament," said Congress leader.

He further said that the BJP MPs told him in Parliament that they cannot have an open discussion and are told what they are supposed to say. Not a single BJP MP Iis allowed to go against PM Modi and it's the same with the Judiciary and the press.

On the reports by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), a Sweden-based institute that downgraded India to an "electoral autocracy," showing a decline in democratic freedoms and Freedom House analysis which shifted India's status from a 'free' country to 'partly-free.' Gandhi said that we do not need the stamp from them.

“We don’t need stamps from them, but directionally what they are saying is correct and democracy is actually weakening in the country. In fact, they are way behind the curve. The situation in India is far worse than they, or sections within our country, imagine. You can not separate electoral democracy from an institutional framework. Democracy is ineffective without its supporting frameworks. An election is not something that people are just going and pressing the button to caste the vote, it is an narrative," Rahul said.

On frequent questions asked about the need for the Gandhis to provide opportunities for someone else at the helm of the Congress Rahul said

“No one from my family has been PM since 1989. I am happy to push other leaders, make them successful. My role in Congress is to defend a particular ideological current. I will not stop defending that ideological position because someone says I am someone’s son," he said.