India’s Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi spoke at the National Press Club in Washington DC on Tuesday (10th September) wherein he cast aspersions about Indian democracy, the state of free speech and the country’s economic progress.
At the very onset, he claimed, “I think politics in India changed very dramatically in 2014. We entered a phase of politics that we haven’t seen in India before, aggressive, attacking the foundations of our democratic structure.”
In his desperate bid to hype up his luxurious political foot pilgrimage (aka Bharat Jodo Yatra), Rahul Gandhi alleged, “Media was suppressed, institutions were controlled, agencies were attacking the opposition, governments were being overthrown, and we found that literally the only way was to go directly to the people of India.”
The Gandhi scion chose to exploit his media interaction in the US to score political brownies at home. He not only raked up domestic political affairs but also demonised the Hindu rights outfit Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
He brazened out, “There’s an ideological war taking place in India between the Congress and our partners and the BJP and the RSS. There are two completely different visions of India. We believe in a plural vision, a vision where everybody has a right to thrive, all imaginations are free to roam, an India where you’re not persecuted because of what religion you believe in or what community you come from or which language you speak, versus a much harsher centralizing vision.”
Rahul Gandhi also raised the issue of the politically motivated caste census and affirmative action (which has of late reached dangerous proportions in the United States). “I’ve been saying again and again and again, we’re going to increase reservations beyond 50%,” he emphasised.
Rahul Gandhi plays the victim card, compares India with Syria and Iraq
He also presented the Congress party as a victim of political vendetta after its accounts were frozen for not paying ₹135 crore tax.
“We fought an election with our bank accounts frozen, right? Now, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know any democracy where that’s happened. Maybe, you know, that type of thing happens in Syria or used to happen in Iraq,” the Gandhi scion drew false equivalence between India and failed Islamic nations.
During his media interaction, Rahul Gandhi also alleged, “So Indian democracy has been under attack, has been very badly weakened, and now it’s fighting back.” The Gandhi scion is on a 3-day visit to the United States.
Gandhi scion meets controversial Bangladeshi ‘journalist’
In pictures that have surfaced on social media, Rahul Gandhi was seen interacting with anti-India, Bangladeshi ‘journalist’ Mushfiqul Fazal Ansaray.
The latter came under the spotlight in March this year after he raked up the arrest of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi liquor policy case (which is an internal affair of India) during a press briefing with US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Mushfiqul Fazal Ansaray also raised the same issue before the spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General. OpIndia found a report from Just News BD where it was mentioned that the Government of Bangladesh had sued him under the Digital Security Act.
LoP Rahul Gandhi's event at the National Press Club in the US featured Bangladeshi journalist Mushfiqul Fazal Ansaray, notorious for his persistent anti-India questions during White House briefings. Ansarey has been living in exile because of his pro US and Anti-Bangladesh work… pic.twitter.com/3OimB7mkth
— Rahul Kaushik (@kaushkrahul) September 11, 2024
As per the report from November 2022, Mushfiqul was booked by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), and Mushfiqul was marked as ‘absconding’ in the matter.
The same report mentioned that Mushfiqul used to run a web portal that was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 2015. He has been accused of spreading disinformation about the government on multiple occasions.
Mushfiqul is pro-Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is known for supporting insurgency in India’s North East. Bangladesh’s mission to the UN had objected to his participation in various programmes as a “journalist” despite his “active” political roles and affiliation.
The guys asking the question about sanctions is Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarey.
— Shakuni Mama (@shakunimama420) April 16, 2024
He has been declared an absconder by his own country Bangladesh and can be seen sharing anti-India content on daily basis. pic.twitter.com/MEgKcEZUlS
Speaking to BD News 24, then-Press Secretary of the mission, Bijob Lal Deb, had said, “If active politicians are given media cards, there will be nothing left to say.”
Mushfiqul is also a columnist at the propaganda portal The Wire. There are three articles under his name.
A report in Somoy News stated that Mushfique vigorously promotes Jamaat on social media. Another report from Weekly Blitz stated Right To Freedom is funded by Jamaat. According to a report in IPA News Pack, Hunter Biden was allegedly using his influence against the Awami Party using BNP.
As per the report, BNP attempted to hire Hunter Biden as its lobbyist and “succeeded” in reaching an agreement via William B Milam, who is an influential figure of the Democratic Party and a retired diplomat who runs Right To Freedom with Mushfique.
Interestingly, he regularly features reports linked to Jamaat on his news portal Just News BD.
Meeting with the wife of the Advocacy Director of IAMC
According to the Washington-based advocacy group ‘HinduACTion’, Rahul Gandhi also met Sarita Pandey on the sidelines of the event at the National Press Club.
Concerning!!!
— HinduACTion (@HinduACT) September 11, 2024
Two key individuals involved in arranging the Washington DC engagements for @RahulGandhi, the leader of Opposition in India are –
Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarey (red box) and Sarita Pandey (blue box) who is the wife of the Executive Director of Indian American Muslim… pic.twitter.com/DIT9sYR12Z
Previously, Pandey had met the Gandhi scion in Washington in June last year and gifted him a portrait of his mother Sonia Gandhi.
“As I handed it to him, I said, “From one mother to another,” and he said he will pass it to her. I hope he does,” she had tweeted at that time.
Gifted @RahulGandhi a super-quick charcoal + watercolor painting of Sonia Gandhi Ji when he was visiting Washington, DC, last week. As I handed it to him, I said, “From one mother to another,” and he said he will pass it to her. I hope he does. ❤️#ArtistOnTwitter pic.twitter.com/mkVXQKSuKa
— Sarita Pandey (@saritapandey) June 9, 2023
For the unversed, Sarita Pandey is the wife of Ajit Sahi – the Advocacy Director of the radical Islamist outfit ‘Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC)’.
According to the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the Indian Americal Muslim Council has links [pdf] with the banned Islamic terror outfit, Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
Besides, the Indian American Muslim Council has ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) through its founder Shaik Ubaid. The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation claiming to be a rights advocacy group.
➡️IAMC's Pak connect
— Anti Propaganda Front (@APF_Ind) January 18, 2023
It is a radical Islamist group founded by Sheikh Ubaid.
It is presently headed by Rasheed Ahmed, former executive director of IMANA which was accused of looting COVID funds
Current IMANA’s Operations Director Zahid Mahmood is an ex-PakIstan Navy official. pic.twitter.com/mI6WT1y674
In the past, it had reportedly collaborated with and even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom).
IAMC had been caught spreading fake news and misinformation to further the Islamist cause in India. It had also been slapped with the UAPA in 2021.
Sarita Pandey’s wife Ajit Sahi has also been felicitated with the ‘Swami Agnivesh Memorial Award’ in 2021 by the controversial Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR). The same was also seen endorsing the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference.
Why Bangladesh type regime change operation in India will turn into Ghazwa e Hind
— STAR Boy TARUN (@Starboy2079) August 6, 2024
(Short essay)
The lady sitting with Rahul Gandhi is Sunita Vishwanath (June 2023)
She runs an NGO HfHR which is funded by Ford and Soros
She is also connected with Pak's Jamat e Islami's NGOs… pic.twitter.com/Ar0QXdpKoY
In 2019, Sunita Vishwanath, the co-founder of ‘Hindus for Human Rights’ also tried to create hysteria and panic among Indian Muslims about the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Coincidentally, Rahul Gandhi had met her during his US trip in 2023.
She is also the co-founder of an organisation named ‘Women for Afghan Women’, which is funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF)/ Open Society Institute (OSI).
