The address comes a day after the former Congress chief interacted with the Indian diaspora and attended an event by the Indian Journalists’ Association.
Rahul Gandhi was invited to deliver a lecture at the University of Cambridge (File)
By India Today News Desk: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who is currently on a 10-day visit to the United Kingdom, will address the UK MPs, Lords, Baronesses, and other attendees in the Grand Committee Room of the Palace of Westminster. This comes a day after the former Congress chief interacted with the Indian diaspora and attended an event by the Indian Journalists’ Association.
“The debate is not limited to a political future, but must embrace the cultural, social and business ties that bind both countries, as the people are the living bridge,” the Chair of the Indo-British APPG, an MP of Indian origin, Virendra Sharma, who arranged the parliament event, told India Today TV.
Clarifying that the speech would be in one of the “parliamentary committee rooms”, and not the chambers itself, Sharma elaborated that the real interest is to see “if the Congress party comes back into power, how they will deal with the future leaders and the future governments of Britain, especially when India and the UK both are fundamentally key allies, democratic, progressive and committed to the rules based international order.”
Rahul Gandhi is set to conclude his UK tour this week with an address at the Chatham House think tank in London on geopolitical issues.
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WHAT RAHUL GANDHI SAID IN UK
On Sunday, Gandhi launched a fresh attack on the BJP and said he is not afraid of the criticism and asserted that it’s a fight between courage and cowardice, and love and hatred.
“The more they attack me, the better that is for me, because the more I understand… It’s a fight between courage and cowardice. It’s a fight between respect and disrespect, between love and hatred. As I said during the Yatra, ‘nafrat ke bazaar mein, hum mohabbat ki dukaan kholne aaye hain (in a market of hatred, we want to set up a shop that spreads love)’,” he said amid cheers.
The 52-year-old, who had been invited to deliver a lecture at the University of Cambridge, expressed his regret that Indian political leaders are unable to freely address a university in India in this manner.
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“It was a nice atmosphere (at Cambridge University) and it made me think that an Indian political leader can give a talk at Cambridge University and Harvard University but he can’t give a talk at an Indian university,” Gandhi said.
“The reason is that our government simply does not allow any idea of the Opposition, any concept of the Opposition to be discussed. The same happens in parliament when there are important things we need to speak about, like demonetisation, GST, the fact that the Chinese are sitting inside our territory… we are not allowed to raise them in the House,” he said.
He then went on to reiterate that he was forced to undertake his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ because the institutions that protect democracy and allow an expression of voice have been “captured by the BJP”.
Attacking the BJP, the former Congress chief said, “On the other hand, we have an ideology of hatred and violence, a disrespectful ideology that attacks people because of their ideas. And you must have noticed one thing, that this is in the nature of BJP and the RSS.”
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“If you notice the statement of the foreign minister, he said China is much more powerful than us. To think China is more powerful than us, how can I pick a fight with them? At the heart of the ideology is cowardice,” he said, referring to S Jaishankar’s remarks in an interview.
WHAT BJP SAID
Gandhi’s UK visit has not been received warmly back home in India, with the BJP accusing him of “defaming” the country abroad following his Cambridge University speech.
The BJP slammed Gandhi for maligning India on foreign soil while praising China.
Gandhi’s remarks at Cambridge University triggered a political slugfest, with the BJP accusing him of denigrating India. The Congress’s political rival asked if Gandhi was working on the payroll of an agency to bring down India.
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