Farmers' protests: Indian democracy is 'imaginary', claims Rahul Gandhi; Congress leaders meet Ram Nath Kovind

New Delhi: There is “no democracy in India” and it exists “only in imagination”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged after meeting President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday and demanded a joint session of Parliament to repeal the three agri laws. If the prime minister does not repeal these laws, the country will suffer, he said. Rahul along with Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met President Kovind and handed over to him a memorandum signed by two crore farmers seeking withdrawal of the three legislations. “We told the president that the new agri laws are anti-farmer. The farmers and labourers will suffer due to this. The government said that these laws are in favour of the farmers, but the country is seeing that it is the farmers who are against these legislations,” Gandhi said. “The farmers (camping at Delhi borders) would not return till these laws are repealed. The government should convene a joint session of Parliament and repeal these laws,” he told reporters after meeting the president. “If you destroy the agri system… There will be massive destruction. The way the agri laws were passed in Monsoon session of Parliament in September, without any discussion and consultation, they need to be withdrawn.” “The farmers are in pain and also dying. The prime minister will have to listen to them,” the Congress leader said and asserted that all Opposition parties are standing in solidarity with the farmers. Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former congress president alleged that anyone “trying to take power from him will be dubbed as terrorist and anti-national”. “He will make sure the wealth of people is transferred to crony capitalists. He will call people anti-nationals, terrorists to transfer the wealth of these people to three-four crony capitalists close to them,” Gandhi alleged. About Congress MPs and leaders not allowed to stage a protest march to Rashtrapti Bhawan, he said, “It is an assault on the idea of India. The government is stopping our MPs from moving out of our office. PM needs to realise that there is limit to this… There is no democracy in India, it is only in imagination, not in reality.” “China is sitting at the border and has snatched our land. But why does the PM not speak up on it?” Gandhi said, adding the country was “moving on a dangerous path” and “it will suffer”. The Congress leader said that he had warned about COVID-19. “I say things in advance. Again, I say, no power can stand before the farmers and labourers.”