‘Saddam, Gaddafi used to win elections too’: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Lambasting the Centre over reports claiming decline of democracy in India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi used to win elections as well.

“Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi used to have elections. They used to win them. It wasn’t like they weren’t voting but there was no institutional framework to protect that vote,” Rahul Gandhi said in online interaction with Brown University.

He made this comment while reacting to a question of Professor Ashutosh Varshney of Brown University on reports by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), a Sweden-based institute which downgraded India to an “electoral autocracy,” citing a decline in democratic freedoms and Freedom House analysis which shifted India’s status from a ‘free’ country to ‘partly-free.’

Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi used to have elections. They used to win them. It wasn't like they weren't voting but there was no institutional framework to protect that vote: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2021

Rahul Gandhi further said, “Bharatiya Janata Party MPs in Parliament tell me that they cannot have an open discussion. They say they are told what to say.” The Indian government, however, had disproved the report by Freedom House and called it “misleading, incorrect and misplaced.”

To this Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, Giving comment on Rahul Gandhi’s opinion is worthless. Comparing India’s democracy with Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein is an insult to the 80 crore voters. Only during the year of emergency, we witnessed a time like that of Gaddafi and Saddam.

Giving comment on Rahul Gandhi’s opinion is worthless. Comparing India’s democracy with Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein is an insult to the 80 crore voters. Only during the year of emergency, we witnessed a time like that of Gaddafi and Saddam: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar pic.twitter.com/ncqkxbuFPj

— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2021