Launching a blistering attack on the BJP on Thursday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi compared the prevailing atmosphere in the country to that in Pakistan. In his first public comments after the Karnataka elections, which saw the Congress slip to a distant second place after the BJP, Gandhi said: "The BJP is scaring the judges of the Supreme Court. This happens when there's a dictatorship.”

 

This has probably happened for the first time in a democracy. This happens in places like Pakistan, says Congress President Rahul Gandhi #RahulPakAnalogy pic.twitter.com/NwlGLtpPVe

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 17, 2018

Gandhi, who was addressing a rally in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, said: “An environment of fear and insecurity is prevailing in the country...RSS is making its way into all institutions in the country. Aisa Pakistan ya tanashahi mein hota hai (Such things happen in countries like Pakistan or dictatorships).

Alleging that the Constitution was under attack, he said: “In Karnataka on one side there are MLAs standing and on the other side the Governor. JD (S) has said its MLAs have been offered Rs 100 crore.”  

Earlier on Thursday morning, Gandhi had alleged that the BJP by forming a government in Karnataka without reaching the half-way mark was making “a mockery of our Constitution”.

“The BJP’s irrational insistence that it will form a Govt. in Karnataka, even though it clearly doesn’t have the numbers, is to make a mockery of our Constitution," the Congress president tweeted. “This morning, while the BJP celebrates its hollow victory, India will mourn the defeat of democracy.”