00:00Okay, with the India Alliance now saying that they are going to hit the streets to demand the resignation of
00:07the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar,
00:09joining me now is Congress General Secretary and Member of Parliament, Nasser Hussain, who's playing an important role in bringing
00:16all these parties together.
00:18Nasser Hussain, what is the message the India Alliance wants to send out today?
00:23Because the fact is that one of your important components, DMK, is no longer with you.
00:29Armed Army Party has already left much earlier.
00:32Do you believe that the India Alliance is completely united, including those parties who didn't attend today's meeting in demanding
00:39the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar?
00:41Will the DMK, for example, support you on this?
00:49Rajdeep, today's meeting was a meeting of India Alliance partners.
00:56Those who are in opposition, but outside India Alliance also support this.
01:01It was a meeting of India Alliance, so only members of India Alliance were there in the meeting today.
01:07India Alliance parties are united, opposition parties are united.
01:11Even three parties from NDA bloc spoke against this.
01:16And a couple of senior leaders from BJP itself spoke about this.
01:20So that means every nook and corner of the country, parties, politicians, voters, citizens,
01:29they're all up in one voice against the Election Commission.
01:33And the entire process that has been compromised, that has been manipulated in the last several years.
01:43So they want answers to this.
01:46They want the CEC to go.
01:48They want people behind the CEC to be exposed.
01:52They want to fix them for their accountability.
02:00No, but the question, Mr. Hussain, is, is this now a Congress-led India Alliance,
02:05where the Congress is taking all the decisions?
02:07Is this a collective voice or a Congress-led voice?
02:11That Rahul Gandhi now is the one who is going to lead this show, others are expected to follow,
02:16which was very different when the India Alliance, before 2024, gathered.
02:19Then you had Nitish Kumar in power in Bayar, Mamata Banerjee in Bengal, Stalin in Tamil Nadu.
02:25So you seem to have, you know, the alliance seemed to be of equals.
02:30Now it seems to be entirely driven by Congress and Rahul Gandhi in particular.
02:35Is this mission Rahul or mission India Alliance to target Gyanesh Kumar?
02:44Rajjip, India Alliance has all parties into it, has most of the opposition parties into it.
02:54And Congress has always led, has always played an important role in India Alliance,
03:00and before that also in UPA, and before that also in many opposition,
03:05in parties, like-minded parties, forums that were formed earlier.
03:10Since Congress is a bigger party, since Congress has more MPs,
03:13since Congress is an older party, since Congress is a party that ground this country for a long time,
03:18with all its experience, they have led from the front.
03:20But that doesn't mean that we want only our agenda or we want to dictate terms in India Alliance.
03:27Obviously, at the national level, when Rahul Gandhi is the LOP in Lok Sabha
03:32and Malika Jun Kharkargeya Saab is the LOP in Rajya Sabha,
03:34they lead the struggle, the protest, the movement, the questions in both the houses.
03:41You have been noticing the functioning of India Alliance and the opposition parties,
03:46when both these leaders take meetings every time, every day.
03:49Every day morning there are briefings, there are meetings, there are strategy meetings,
03:53and then accordingly we take up the issues in the parliament.
03:57So, in that way, Rahul Gandhiji has emerged as a very important leader of the India bloc.
04:04And obviously, since he has been a former Congress president also,
04:08he has all that authority, following, acceptability, not only in Congress party,
04:13but in the India bloc and also in the entire country among the masses.
04:18You could have seen the way people, students, youth are responding to him across the country.
04:24That's a different thing.
04:25But here, in the meeting today, 20 parties deliberated, discussed,
04:30views were taken, opinions were taken, and collectively the course of action was decided.
04:39No, no, but you see, the feeling is that the India Alliance only gets together in a crisis.
04:44I mean, y'all don't have a common minimum agenda, y'all don't seem to work.
04:50Once parliament is over, y'all go your separate ways, y'all fight with each other in elections,
04:56but you are coming together because now it's an existential crisis.
04:59Mamata Banerjee has lost Bengal.
05:02The Congress also is worried about its own prospects in the near future.
05:09Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, did not send, did not come himself, sent representatives.
05:15Many believe that's because there are divisions within the SP Congress for an alliance in UP.
05:21Is this an alliance of convenience or is this now an alliance of conviction,
05:26at least on certain issues?
05:27Will we see y'all working together consistently or only when it suits y'all,
05:32when there is an existential crisis?
05:34A quick answer.
05:39Rajiv, see, India Alliance was formed with a specific common minimum program
05:46with our own understanding of things before 2024 parliament elections.
05:50We do have, we do come together on issues at the national level.
05:55We have our alliances and maybe not alliances in some of the states during the assembly election.
06:01That's a different matter.
06:02But we all are very determined.
06:06It's an alliance of conviction.
06:09We are all associated with different parties, different ideologies.
06:14But at the center, there is a common minimum plank on which we are all together.
06:20And it is not just during crisis.
06:22Even otherwise, during the parliament, after the parliament, whenever there are need,
06:25we have Zoom meetings, we have virtual, we have physical meetings, we have virtual meetings.
06:29We meet every day in the parliament.
06:31After the parliament, we meet with the leaders.
06:33There are consultations on one-to-one level, personal level.
06:36Things are on continuously.
06:40But if you want to ask me why are we not meeting every month, every 50 days, I think that
06:47is not possible.
06:48Your single point agenda, Mr. Hussain, your single point agenda is BJP.
07:01Obviously, when the BJP and the current government at the center is destroying the democracy in our country,
07:09they are subverting the entire democratic process.
07:11When they are undoing the constitution, scant regard to anything in the constitution,
07:17the way this government has been functioning, the way our economy has gone to, I mean, gone to docks,
07:25the way our foreign policy has been, this deviation in the foreign policy, the crisis in the country,
07:34that is there.
07:34Obviously, not only we in Congress Party are the India Alliance, the entire country wants this government to go.
07:41That's the reason why they are up in arms and on the streets on every other issue.
07:45The Jendis, the students, the youth, the farmers, the mazdour, everyone is asking for this government to go.
07:56I'm going to leave it there.
07:57We'll wait and see how your alliance plays out on this issue of CC Hatao.
08:01But for now, for joining me, appreciate your joining me, Nasir Hussain there of the Congress.
08:07Thank you very much.
08:11Thank you, Rajiv.
