PTI, March 3, 2023, 11:59 AM IST
Indian democracy is under threat, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said during a speech at Cambridge University, adding that several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance.
Gandhi made the remarks during a speech on “Learning to listen in the 21st century”, which was shared on Twitter by Congress leader Sam Pitroda, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Raising the Pegasus snooping issue, Gandhi alleged that Israeli spyware had been installed on the phones of a number of politicians, including himself.
Gandhi also recalled the events of his recently concluded 4,000 km India Jora Yatra across 12 states. Explaining the power of hearing and non-violence, he described the ‘face-to-face encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’. He continued walking despite security personnel alerting him of a terror attack. An unidentified man, who approached Rahul and asked if he had really come to listen to the people of the valley, pointed to a group of ‘militants’ standing nearby.
“I looked at them and thought I was in trouble…nothing happened, we just carried on…they had no power to do anything even if they wanted to, because I came in that environment to listen, without any violence at all,” while showing pictures of the Congress-led march. he said
The idea of Bharat Jore was born out of a need to connect with people and draw attention to prejudice, unemployment and growing inequality in an increasingly suffocating environment, he added.
