India no longer a democracy, says Rahul Gandhi at Bharat Summit in Hyderabad

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that India was “no longer a democracy”, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government of systematically weakening democratic institutions since forming government in 2014.

Addressing the Bharat Summit 2026, organised by the Telangana government in Hyderabad, Gandhi said the political system had undergone a fundamental transformation over the past decade and alleged irregularities in the 2014 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“It is important for the democratic movement on the planet that India remains a democracy. What we have found and proven is that India is actually no longer a democracy,” he said.

The senior Congress leader alleged that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections marked a turning point, with unprecedented amounts of money being pumped into the political system and a new style of campaigning emerging.

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“In 2014, we witnessed a completely new kind of election, something we had never seen before. Millions and millions of dollars were pumped into the political system. There was a completely new type of campaign, a kind of political drama we had never witnessed before,” the former Congress chief said.

Gandhi added that the Opposition initially struggled to understand the changes in the political and electoral landscape and remained “in shock” for nearly a decade.

“I would be lying if I said the Opposition was not in shock. We were in shock, not for a year, not for two years, but for an entire decade,” he said.

The Congress and other Opposition parties, Gandhi said, later began examining election results and voter data across states and alleged that their analysis had raised serious questions over the credibility of electoral processes.

Citing Maharashtra, Gandhi alleged that the INDIA bloc won more Lok Sabha seats in the state but was defeated in the assembly elections held just three months later. He questioned the sharp change in the electoral outcome and alleged that around 7 million additional voters were added to the rolls between the two elections, claiming they all voted for the BJP. “How can the election be legitimate if the Election Commission declares 140 million voters to be illegal?” he asked.

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Gandhi said similar discrepancies could be found in other states, without providing details during his address.

He also criticised the concentration of economic opportunities among a few industrial groups, questioning the relationship between political power, economic influence and public institutions. He described people who claimed to have all the answers and refused to listen to alternative views as “fascists”, saying such people existed across politics, business and academia.

“In politics, we call them fascists...Fascists tend to have a louder voice. Historically, fascists emerge when systems collapse. When everything is working, they go into hiding...,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi also apologised to international delegates who were scheduled to attend the summit. “I would like to apologise to the many delegates and leaders who were scheduled to attend but were not allowed to come by the Government of India. I apologise. It is not our fault, but it gives you a sense of what we are dealing with in our country,” he said.

The BJP, meanwhile, attacked the Congress over the participation of foreign speakers at the summit and questioned its decision to invite former Ecuador foreign minister Guillaume Long.

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“Congress must answer: What is the agenda behind inviting Guillaume Long to its Bharat Summit 2026 in Hyderabad? Long is a Senior Research Fellow at CEPR, which reportedly received $420,000 in grants from George Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center in 2021,” BJP national media convenor Ashish Usha Agarwal said in a post on X.

Referring to the Enforcement Directorate searches at eight premises in Bengaluru in March 2025 allegedly linked to the Open Society Foundations and its beneficiaries, he asked whether the Congress was seeking international backing for an “anti-India agenda”.

The Congress has said experts from 70 countries would attend the summit to discuss the emerging global order and India’s strategic response, besides issues such as cooperative federalism and electoral integrity.