All-round fear in country; Judges, media scared: Rahul

Hitting out at the BJP-led central government and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said an atmosphere of all-round fear prevailed in the country and even the Supreme Court Judges and the media are panicky.

Addressing panchayat representatives at Jan Swaraj Sammelan in Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Gandhi said: "Even Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and MPs cannot open their mouths before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Who is spreading this fear? Who is gaining from this atmosphere? Several BJP members of Parliament told me that no one can speak before Modi."

He said that the Indian Constitution was under "severe attack" and the current state of the judiciary was like that of Pakistan.

"Usually people go to the Supreme Court for justice. But for the first time in 70 years, we saw Supreme Court Judges coming to the people to complain that they are being intimidated and they are not being allowed to do their job," Gandhi said.

Such a thing, the Congress leader said, would normally happen in a dictatorship.

"It happened in Pakistan and Africa. But this happened for the first time in 70 years in India," he said, referring to the Supreme Court Judges' press conference in January.

--IANS

hindi-nir/tsb/bg