Rahul Gandhi accuses Narendra Modi govt of 'going to war with the people', says Centre not listening to people

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, accusing it of “going to war with the people.” [caption id=“attachment_5324051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rahul Gandhi delivered the keynote address at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. Twitter/@INCIndia[/caption] Delivering the keynote address at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Rahul accused the government of imposing “a single, suffocating ideology on 1.3 billion people” across the country, saying that the government “dislikes thinkers,” and that “fresh thinking is unwelcome” in India,  CNN-News18 quoted him as saying. “All they do is talk about their slogans,” he said, adding at the government does not listen to the people of India. “Their slogans have a shelf life because the people in charge are convinced that they have a monopoly on knowledge. They are convinced that nobody other than them understands India or the dreams of its people.” Rahul went on to underline the differences between the Congress and the BJP, saying that “India is a partnership between all its peoples” and the Congress “didn’t believe in binaries”. He added that Congress, unlike the BJP, has never tried to take over the Election Commission or the Supreme Court, which he said feel intimidated by the government’s stronghold. “We must reimagine that old India, where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,” he said. Speaking to potential terror threats from Pakistan, CNN-News18 quoted Rahul as saying: “Pakistan is a special neighbour. It has structural problems within itself; and its 4-5 institutions make it difficult to deal with them. They are sponsoring terror against India.” The Congress president also addressed questions about the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati’s statement that her party would contest the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan alone . She also accused the Congress of trying to “destroy” BSP through a mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). As per a report from News18, Rahul said at the summit: “I don’t see the BSP alliance impacting us much in Madhya Pradesh. It would have been a good thing to have, but I think we will win the election there and in Chhattisgarh.” “In national elections, the parties will come together, particularly in Uttar Pradesh,” he said,