Highlights of the speech of Shri Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) at the inauguration function of the ‘Indira Bhawan’, the new AICC Headquarters in New Delhi on January 15, 2025. I would like to congratulate all of you on this occasion. We are getting a new headquarters and we are getting a new headquarters at a very particular time. I think, it’s quite symbolic that yesterday in a speech, the Chief of the RSS said that India never achieved Independence in 1947. He said that true independence in India was achieved when the Ram Mandir was built. This building, it is not an ordinary building. It has emerged from the soil of our country and it has emerged as a result of the hard work and sacrifice of millions of people and not just sacrifice prior to the freedom movement but sacrifice until today. And there are multiple examples, there is example of course of the freedom movement and the fruit of that movement, which was the Constitution, which was essentially attacked yesterday by Mr. Mohan Bhagwat, when he says that the Constitution was not the symbol of our freedom, but, also after that thousands of our workers died in Punjab, thousands of our workers died in Kashmir, thousands of our worker died in the North-East and so this Party has stood for a particular set of values and we can see those values in this building.

Unlike the western world which focuses on outside the self, the Indian way of thinking is about understanding the self. If you look at our great masters, they are all about understanding precisely who you are, where you come from, who you are, what your nature is? And that the Bhagavad Gita is about that, Shiva is about that, Guru Nanak Ji is about that, Kabir is about that. All of them are asking the fundamental question, who are you? And this is really the fight that is taking place in India today. There are two visions of the self in India in conflict. One is, our idea, the idea of the Constitution and the other is the idea of the RSS. One idea says, India is a union of states, we have… as we entered, I saw, we have all the national languages there equally placed together, there is no superior language, there is no inferior language, there is no superior culture, there is no inferior culture, there is no superior community, there is no inferior community, they are all the same, that is written in the Constitution, and it is symbolized by this building.

On the other side, there is the idea of a centralized knowledge, of a centralized understanding. Mohan Bhagwat has the audacity to inform the nation, every two or three days, what he thinks about the independence movement, what he thinks about the Constitution. In fact, what he has said yesterday is- Treason, because it is stating that the Constitution is invalid, it is stating that everything, the fight against the British was invalid and he has the audacity to say this publicly. In any other country, he would be arrested and tried, that is the fact.

To say that India did not get independence in 1947 is an insult to every single Indian person and it’s about time we stop listening to this nonsense, that these people think they can just keep parroting out and shouting and screaming, that is the crux of it. The Congress Party has worked with the Indian people. It has built the success of this country and it has built the success of this country on the foundations of the Constitution and that is what this building symbolises. You please go inside this building and you will see, the depth of talent, you will see, how deeply the Congress Party has entered the ‘Soul of India’.

There is a history there in fact we forget as I said it’s important to understand who you are? So, for Congress people, it’s important to understand who we are, what is our tradition, what is our history, who, where we come from. Please, look in the building you will see, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and it doesn’t stop there, workers, Chief Ministers, Governors, Defence Ministers, Foreign Ministers all of them, who served the Constitution of our country. All of them who salute the tricolor. Do not forget that.

The people who are in power today do not salute the tricolor, do not believe in national flag, do not believe in Constitution and they have a completely different vision of India, than we do. They want to be run by a shady, hidden secret society. They want India to be run by one man, and they want to crush the voice of this country. They want to crush the voice of the Dalits, they want to crush the voice of the minorities, they want to crush the voice of the backward castes, of the tribals. This is their agenda and I would also like to say clearly that there is no other party in this country that can stop them. And you will see the only party, the only party that can stop them is the Congress Party and there is a reason for it. The reason is that we are an ideological Party and our ideology didn’t emerge yesterday. Our ideology, unlike the RSS ideology, is thousands of years old and it has been fighting the RSS ideology for thousands of years.

We have our symbols. We have Shiva, we have Buddha, we have Guru Nanak, we have Kabir, we have Mahatma Gandhi, we have our symbols, and these are all the symbols who have shown the correct path to this country. Please, name one symbol of the RSS ideology that is revered in India today. Name one symbol, was Guru Nanak from the RSS ideology, was Buddha from the RSS ideology, was Krishna… Krishan Bhagwan from the RSS ideology, not a single one, because every single one of these people fought for equality, fought for brotherhood, fought for affection. And so, the last thing I would like to say is that this building has emerged from the blood of Congress people and not just Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Patel Ji, not just these people. It has emerged from the blood of our workers, from every single one of our leaders that include all of you who are today defending the idea of the Congress Party. Everybody in this room is under severe assault. Defending the ideas of the Congress Party sometimes we forget it, but these people in this room are facing systematic attack, an assault on their lives because they are in the Congress Party and they are not surrendering to the BJP and the RSS.

And in the same way, thousands of workers are there, but there are also thousands of people who believe, millions of people who believe in the Congress ideology, they are sitting outside the Congress. And that is why, the same way this building has emerged from the soil of our country, from the blood of our leaders, from the blood of our workers, this building… the idea behind this building must also reach the corners of our country, that is the duty of this building.

It does not just remain a building, that the ideas that are inside this building reach the corners of our country, reach Tamil Nadu, Kashmir, North-East, Gujarat, Andaman, Lakshadweep, every corner of our country. This idea has to be propagated from this building. So, I would also finally like to thank all the people who have been responsible for giving us this building. The people Venugopal Ji, mentioned, Murli Deora, Motilal Vora Ji, who we all miss, Ahmed Patel Ji, the others who have helped with the completion, Manish Chatrath Ji, Venugopal Ji, Priyanka, I would like to thank all of you, you have done a tremendous service to the Congress Party, but it is important that now we take the ideas from this building and like leaders of the Congress have done in the past, we spread the ideas to the rest of the soil of this country because we are fighting a civilisational war with these people.

They are every day attacking the ideas that we believe in and only this organisation, only the people in this room and the millions of workers of this organisation have the courage and the capability to stop them.

I would like to say one last thing that do not think that we are fighting a fair fight, there is no fairness in this. If you believe that we are fighting a political organisation called the BJP, that we are fighting a political organisation called the RSS, you have not understood what is going on. The BJP and the RSS have captured every single institution of our country. We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian state itself.

In the last Working Committee meeting, I said very clearly that there is something wrong that has happened in the Maharashtra Election. I said clearly that we are not comfortable with the way the Election Commission is holding elections. I said very clearly that the large number of new voters that have suddenly appeared, almost a crore of new voters, who have suddenly appeared between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha in Maharashtra is problematic and I put a challenge clearly in front of the Election Commission and I said clearly to the Election Commission through that meeting that it is your duty to make the voter list transparent to the opposition.

We said clearly- we want to see the names of the voters, who voted in the Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra and we want to see the names and addresses of the voters who voted in the Vidhan Sabha elections. If they were to give us that data, the problem would be solved, because we would know for sure, whether there is a problem in Maharashtra or not. But I would like to state to this meeting that the Election Commission has refused to give us that information.

Now, I want to ask you why would the Election Commission refused to give us voter list of the Maharashtra Election. What purpose he served by not giving us and the rest of the opposition the voter list of the Maharashtra Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections? Why will it damage the Election Commission to give us this list and why are they not giving us this list? It is the duty of the Election Commission to provide transparency in elections. If there is one crore increase in voters between Maharashtra Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, it is the duty and the sacred responsibility of the Election Commission to show us exactly, why that has happened and they are refusing to do it.

And this is something every congressman and every opposition person has to keep in mind. There is a serious problem with our election system and we might find it very difficult to accept this because we are the people who have put in place the election system. But we have to keep it in mind that there is a problem and it is the duty of the Election Commission to come clean and to give us the data of the Maharashtra and the Haryana elections, to give us the data we are asking for, the opposition is asking for, which they are refusing to give us. So that is the situation in which we are fighting.

Investigative agencies, which are supposed to investigate crimes are being used against opposition. They are being used against all opposition leaders; CBI, ED all these structures. We do not know whether our institutions are working or are not functioning. It is pretty clear the media, what the media is up to, everybody knows. Even the people know, that the media is no longer free and fair. So, these are circumstances under which you are fighting this ideological battle and I must tell you that I am extremely proud of every single one of you, that you get up in the morning and you stand and you fight for what you believe in and what you know to be a politics.

So, I am very proud of this building and I am prouder of the people, who are sitting inside this building right now.