- Congress rejects India-France/Bangladesh comparison on protests.
- Opposition demands free, fair elections, not regime change.
- Concerns raised over electoral roll removals during ECI-SIR.
Even as several reports pointed to a wider conspiracy behind riots in France with footprints traced to India, the Congress has rejected the comparison of the two situations. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday said India is neither Bangladesh nor France, asserting that the opposition believes in peaceful protests and is demanding free and fair elections amid the ongoing controversy over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
He said the opposition does not condone violence and believes in peaceful demonstrations.
Speaking to ANI, Tharoor said, "I think that India is not Bangladesh and India is not France. I don't see these analogies as particularly relevant... We would never condone any of the violence, setting alight buses and police stations and so on, that has occurred in France. We only believe in peaceful protest... that's the kind of protest that I have participated in, and that I believe the opposition in general supports."
Rejecting allegations of seeking regime change, Tharoor said the opposition's demand was for free and fair elections, raising concerns over the removal of large numbers of people from electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.
“As far as the larger issues are concerned, there's no point distorting a phrase like ''regime change'' and so on... What we are calling for is free and fair elections... What is troubling today is that large numbers of people have been cut from the electoral rolls as the result of a completely troublesome, irregular, and partially illegal process. This is why we are calling for all this to be undone... It's a constitutional issue. It's not an issue of trying to topple a regime or anything like that,” the Congress MP said.
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Congress RS MP Pawan Khera also questioned the narrative of comparing the protests in India to those in Europe.
:Comparing India and Europe is comparing apples with oranges...They are again recycling a tired, dangerous trope: caricaturing Muslims as inherently violent, militant, barbaric and uncivilised, and reducing protests in Europe to a “Muslim problem”. The insinuation is unmistakable: India, too, must beware of its own “Muslim problem”. This is not just about portraying Europe as a cautionary tale. We have seen this very playbook, this very toolkit deployed in India often. Even during recent protests in Delhi, individuals affiliated with the Sangh were seen posing as Muslims, attempting to provoke communal discord and resorting to violence. The objectives? To discredit peaceful, legitimate movements for education, electoral integrity, transparency and justice by branding them part of ‘Abdul’s’ so-called “anti-India agenda” and to villainise Indian Muslims. But here is the fundamental distinction this narrative deliberately obscures: in Europe, the protesters are the rioters. In India, it is the State and state sponsored non-state actors - the Sangh brigade. Modi-Shah’s police have repeatedly used brute force against peaceful protesters and so have right-wing ‘activists’ posing as police," he said.
The Congress stand comes even as Union Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that a conspiracy similar to that of France and Bangladesh had been hatched in India as well. "The violent incident that occurred in Bangladesh and the riots, arson, and looting that took place in France—a similar conspiracy was hatched for India as well. Anti-India gangs and some politicians had colluded to incite the youth and spread violence on our streets. But those who devised this dangerous conspiracy forgot that India is neither Bangladesh nor France. Regime change in India is absolutely possible—but only through elections, not through Soros," he said.
Meanwhile, A Fox News Digital investigation published on October 9 identified 50 organisations associated with France's student protest movement and its wider network of supporters, alleging that communist, socialist and far-left groups are using demonstrations over school conditions to advance broader political and ideological agendas.
According to Fox News Digital, only 15 of the 50 organisations identified in its analysis are student or youth groups, while the remaining 35 include labour unions, communist and socialist organisations, political parties, civil-rights groups and other advocacy organisations.
The report said the network extends beyond France to countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, Brazil and India, with organisations mobilising supporters, calling strikes and amplifying the demonstrations through international media outlets.
The report pointed to Indian Alliance Paris, a France-based organisation of students, researchers and professionals, which allegedly promoted the French demonstrations on social media and drew parallels with student protests in India.
(Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by The Daily Jagran staff and has been published through syndicated feed by ANI.)