Congress not 'Big Daddy,' respects regional parties: Rahul

New Delhi: Backtracking from his stand in Udaipur, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party respects regional outfits and does not want to be "the Big Daddy" while asserting that the fight against the BJP will be a "group effort".

During an interactive session at the 'Ideas for India' conference in London, he made a scathing attack on the BJP government alleging the "deep state" in India is attacking institutions and capturing them such as the media. Alleging that people's voices are being stifled, Gandhi said the Congress will reach out to the masses and fight to save 'the idea of India'. The former Congress chief asserted his party will coordinate with regional outfits to launch a nationwide movement against the ruling dispensation and will reach out to the people in a big way. "We have to coordinate with our friends in the opposition. I don't view the Congress as the 'Big Daddy'. It is a group effort with the opposition. But it is a fight to regain India," he said at the conclave.

A video of the event was released by the Congress on Saturday. "The point I made in Udaipur, which was misconstrued, is that this is an ideological battle now. It is a national ideological battle, which means that of course we respect the DMK as a Tamil political organisation, but the Congress is the party that has the ideology at the national level," Gandhi said. So, the Congress will have to think about itself as a structure that is enabling the opposition, he said during the hour-long interaction. "In no way is the Congress superior to the other opposition parties, we are all fighting the same battle. They have their space, we have ours, but an ideological battle is taking place is between the national vision of the RSS and that of the Congress," Gandhi added.

Gandhi's remarks on regional parties, which came in the presence of opposition leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Tejashvi Yadav, are in contrast to his comments at the Congress' three-day 'Chintan Shivir' in Udaipur.