Hyderabad, Nov 14 (IANS) Secretary General of the Party of European Socialists, Giacomo Filibeck, said on Saturday that they are concerned with the way Indian democracy is being “hijacked”.
This comes after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi launched a fierce critique of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government at the Bharat Summit 2026 in Hyderabad, declaring that Indian democracy has been systematically dismantled and is no longer functioning.
Speaking to IANS at the event, Filibeck said: “The reason why we are extremely concerned with the way the hijacking of the democracy is ongoing in India is that new facts have emerged, and Rahul Gandhi has explained them very clearly to the audience of this conference.”
“We cannot tolerate that what was once the largest democracy in the world to become a corrupted one. So, we stand by Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party, in defending democracy in India,” he added.
Describing the Summit, Congress leader and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid said: “Those who are very concerned across the entire world today regarding democracy, regarding the systems of democracy, and regarding where democracy is being distorted and crushed, they presented examples from their own life experiences.”
Vice-President of Telangana Congress, Kota Neelima, hailed Rahul Gandhi’s address, calling it a “powerful speech”.
“He (Rahul Gandhi) explained how crores of voters who voted in the 2014 general election are not on the electoral rolls today, and this question stands before the entire country as to what extent is any election that has taken place since 2014, is legal,” she told IANS.
Neelima asserted that challenge to democracy is not a problem of one nation and is in fact “a global problem”.
Congress MP Praveen Chakravarty said: “We just had a fantastic discussion with senior political leaders from countries such as Ecuador, Thailand and Norway about innovative ideas for progressive liberal parties.”
“I think such events are extremely, extremely important and useful, where there could be a sharing of ideas and all of us could learn from each other in terms of what are the best practices. For example, we spoke about the Brazilian election, and there was a politician from Brazil who actually talked about how they won in the Brazilian election after having lost the first round,” he told IANS.
Meanwhile, Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy hit out at the Congress-led Telangana government for organising the Summit at the expense of “public money”.
Speaking to reporters, Kishan Reddy said: “How can the Telangana government officially spend public funds on behalf of the Congress party? The Telangana government needs to explain the nature of its collaboration with the Congress party, how it spends these funds, and what formal procedures are being followed.”
Referring to Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy claims that this summit will attract future investments to the state, Union Minister Kishan Reddy said: “Given that his own leaders are busy claiming that the country is currently under a fascist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—how does he expect foreign investors to invest in a nation supposedly run by fascists?”
–IANS
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