Rahul Gandhi warns in Berlin BJP targeting India’s Constitution
Rahul Gandhi says opposition fights BJP’s grip on institutions, vows united resistance system to protect India’s democracy
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to dismantle the Indian Constitution and undermining the country’s democratic foundations, framing the struggle against the ruling party as a fight to protect India’s institutional integrity rather than a conventional political contest.
Speaking at the Hertie School in Berlin last week, Gandhi said the Constitution—designed to guarantee equal rights and protections for all citizens—is under threat. He alleged that the BJP’s political project goes beyond winning elections and instead focuses on capturing key democratic institutions to consolidate long-term power.
In an hour-long video released by the Congress on Monday, Gandhi described India’s democracy as not only a national treasure but a global one. “India’s largest and most complex democracy is a global asset,” he said, adding that any erosion of its democratic framework should concern the entire world. According to him, what is happening in India today represents “a full-scale assault” not just on domestic democratic norms, but on the broader idea of democracy itself.
Gandhi stressed that the opposition’s challenge is structural rather than personal. “But we’re not fighting the BJP. You have to understand that we’re fighting their capture of the Indian institutional structure.”
He argued that institutions meant to act as independent pillars of democracy—including electoral mechanisms and other constitutional bodies—have been systematically weakened. “We fundamentally believe that there is a problem with the electoral machinery in India,” Gandhi said, claiming that democratic checks and balances have been compromised through what he described as wholesale institutional capture.
According to Gandhi, this concentration of power has allowed the ruling party to use state institutions as political tools rather than neutral arbiters. He described the situation as unprecedented in scale, warning that democratic decline in a country as large and diverse as India would have consequences far beyond its borders.
The Congress leader’s remarks come at a time when political polarization in India remains high and debates over institutional independence, electoral transparency, and constitutional values continue to dominate public discourse. By taking his message to an international audience, Gandhi appeared to be seeking both global attention and solidarity, positioning India’s democratic future as a matter of worldwide concern.
While the BJP has repeatedly rejected such allegations in the past, Gandhi’s comments underline the opposition’s strategy of framing the political battle as a defense of democracy itself. For him, the challenge ahead is not merely about electoral victory, but about rebuilding trust in institutions that form the backbone of India’s democratic system.