Ever since Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, one of India's major opposition faces, has set his foot in the UK and attacked the Narendra Modi government, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused him of letting the nation down.
Responding to Gandhi's remark in London that democracy in India "has come undone", the saffron party has accused him of "shaming the country" on foreign soil by "seeking foreign intervention".
"BJP would like to emphatically state with great agony that Rahul Gandhi, in his speeches, has sought to shame India's democracy, polity, parliament, political system and judicial system," party spokesperson and former minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, according to NDTV.
Gandhi, 52, had questioned at an event in London "why Europe and the US, the defenders of democracies, were oblivious of how a huge chunk of democracy in India had come undone".
The BJP sought clarification from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his predecessor Sonia Gandhi, the mother of Rahul.
"Rahul Gandhi wants that Europe and US should interfere to save democracy? No matter whose government it is, we have been strongly against any interference in our internal affairs. No foreign country must intervene in India's internal affairs," Prasad said.
"Mr Kharge, BJP wants to know, if you feel you are an elected president of the Congress, do you support the irresponsible and shameful comments of Rahul Gandhi that America and Europe must intervene in India to restore democracy? If you don't then disown them. Sonia ji, BJP would like to urge you to make your stand clear on utterly irresponsible comments," the BJP spokesperson asked.
This photograph taken on April 28, 2026 shows a boy getting "thali", a sacred thread tied to his neck symbolising marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom.Getty Images
This photograph taken on April 29, 2026 shows a member of the transgender community mourning as a priest cuts the "thali", a sacred thread symbolising end of her marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom. Getty Images