Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said in Chennai that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was destroying India’s democracy. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also accused the Prime Minister of indulging in vote theft, and said Modi was silencing voices across the country.

Gandhi said that, as seen in Delhi, the entire city was shut down and police were beating students, and that the BJP had unleashed goons who beat up students. He was speaking at the sixth edition of his youth outreach initiative, Chhatron Ki Goonj, which was earlier held in Kota, Dehradun, Prayagraj, Pune and Indore.

Modi’s 15-year drama ending, says Rahul

Gandhi said Modi did not understand that the game was over, and that the drama he had been doing for the past 15 years was coming to an end. He said his party would ensure that Modi pays for the crimes he had committed against the country.

He described Modi as destroying India’s democracy, comparing him to a famous Bollywood film villain. As Gandhi delivered the line, the screen behind him played a scene from the 1987 movie Mr India with Modi’s face superimposed on the villain. He said his message to students was that they should not fear anything, stressing that all those who attacked the Constitution and democracy would be brought to justice.

Allegations on Tamil culture and language

Gandhi also alleged that Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had launched a full-scale attack on Tamil culture, language and history. He said Shah openly said that Hindi would be imposed on Tamil Nadu, and that it was Modi and Shah who were stifling curiosity. This was happening through the New Education Policy, he said, under which a three-language formula had been imposed.

Claiming that Tamil Nadu was being punished through the design of delimitation, he said his party would not allow Modi to attack Tamil culture, language and history.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi had lunch with Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay. Gandhi arrived at Chennai airport around 12.30 pm and travelled to Vijay’s Neelankarai residence. This was his most significant political engagement in Tamil Nadu after a long period in which his appearances in a state once central to Congress’s national Opposition strategy had become strikingly rare.

A day after hosting Gandhi, Vijay is scheduled to appear with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11 for the inauguration of the first operational stretch of Chennai Metro Phase II — their first joint public appearance since Vijay became CM. Modi will inaugurate the 14.64-km Poonamallee-Vadapalani stretch and travel with Vijay by Metro from Poonamallee to Porur, an event whose political optics are difficult to separate from its administrative purpose.