Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was caught flat-footed during his recent interaction with Cambridge students when one of the attendees questioned him over his repeated assertion that “India is not a nation but a union of states.”
Siddharth Verma, a Civil Servant with the IRTS Association and a scholar in public policy at Cambridge, accosted Rahul Gandhi over his constant refrain that India is not a nation but a union of states.
Yesterday, in Cambridge, I questioned Mr. Rahul Gandhi on his statement that "India is not a nation but a Union of States". He asserted that India is not a nation but the result of negotiation between states. (His complete response will be shared once uploaded by organisers) pic.twitter.com/q5KluwenMf
— Siddhartha Verma (@Sid_IRTS) May 24, 2022
“You quoted Article 1 of the Constitution saying India, i.e Bharat, is a Union of States. If you turn the page back and read the preamble, it does mention India as a nation. Bharat itself is one of the oldest surviving civilisations in the world. And the term finds its origins in Vedas…even Chanakya described India as a nation to his students while teaching at Takshashila,” Verma said.
In a bid to counter Verma, Rahul pointedly asked if Chanakya had used the word “nation” while describing the idea of India to his students. To this, Verma responded saying Chanakya used the term “Rashtra”, a Sanskrit word for “nation” to characterise India. However, Rahul dug his heels in, insisting that “Rashtra” meant “Kingdom” and not “nation”.
“The term nation is a western concept,” said Gandhi, seemingly attempting to vindicate himself and prove that the concept of nation-states originated in the west and that India was just a union of states.
However, Verma countered him saying, “So when I talk about nation, I don’t just talk about political entities because we have had these experiments across the world. You had USSR, you had Yugoslavia, you had the United Arab Republic. So unless nations have a strong socio-cultural and emotional bonding and a composite culture, a Constitution cannot make a nation. Nations make constitutions,” Verma declaimed.
“My question to you is that, as a political leader, don’t you think your idea of India is not only flawed and incorrect but also destructive as it attempts to whitewash a history of thousands of years,” Verma asked.
Rahul Gandhi continues to question India’s national identity
For some time now, Rahul Gandhi has been constantly questioning the very idea of India. In February 2022, Rahul Gandhi said in the Indian parliament that India was just a “union of states” and not a nation.
“India is described in the Indian Constitution as a union of states and not a nation. One cannot rule over the people of a state in India. Different languages and cultures cannot be suppressed. It is a partnership, not a kingdom,” claimed Rahul Gandhi, who launched a tirade against the Modi government.
In his speech, Rahul Gandhi insisted that the power arrangement between the states and the centre is a “negotiation” and insinuated that India did not have a single national identity, instead, the idea of India rose from an agreement or a negotiation between the provincial units. The Gandhi-scion also brought the reference of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, imagining them to be distinct entities and asserted that the ruling dispensation treated these constitutional units as its kingdom.
Since then, the Gandhi scion has been steadfast in his attempt to dismiss India’s national identity, routinely asserting that India is just a union of states and not a nation and peddling the left-liberal narrative of India’s non-existence as a nation before 1947.
