Rahul Gandhi, stop blaming Indian democracy for the people's ongoing rejection of you.

In retaliation, the BJP charged Rahul Gandhi with "blaming" the Indian democracy and its institutions for the Congress' recurrent losses in elections while he was in office and the ongoing ED investigation into him in the National Herald case.

Gandhi held a press conference in New Delhi shortly after, and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad criticised him for making "shameful and irresponsible" remarks. Prasad also pointed out that it was his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, who had imposed Emergency, suspending people's democratic rights.

The former head of the Congress Party had before claimed that India was seeing the "death of democracy" and that everyone who opposed the authoritarianism of the government was being "viciously persecuted."

"Stop denigrating the institutions of India to safeguard your corruption and wrongdoing," Prasad slammed him. Why are you blaming us if people don't listen to you? If anyone witnessed a dictatorship, it was during the Emergency, when judges were removed, censorship was implemented, and people, including opposition leaders and editors, were imprisoned. Then, he continued, Indira Gandhi had mentioned having a "dedicated judiciary."

He went on to ask Gandhi if there was democracy within his party, which has some "excellent leaders," but it is all about the Gandhi family, and said, "Why do you blame democracy when people of India reject you with repeated regularity?"

During the 2019 elections, Rahul Gandhi levelled a variety of accusations against Modi, but according to him, the electorate gave him a stronger mandate.

He must explain how Young Indian, a company in which the two Gandhis have a 76% stake, allegedly acquired National Herald's assets worth over Rs 5,000 crore with the investment of only Rs 5 lakh, according to Prasad, who brought up the Enforcement Directorate's case against him and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

According to Prasad, Rahul Gandhi will have to take responsibility for his actions.

He said, "You'll have to go to trial and respond to the ED's inquiries.

The Congress and the system that supports it are alarmed by the government's aggressive anti-corruption initiatives, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed, because democracy came to be associated with financial irregularities when the opposition party was in power.

He pointed out that the ED has confiscated properties in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata that were allegedly acquired by a number of opposition politicians and their friends through corruption.