It is perhaps the first time that Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has released his speech delivered at a meeting of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc leaders to the public. While his focus on building a united resistance to the Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s assault on the constitutional foundations of the Indian republic, as well as on the liberties and livelihoods of millions of Indians, is welcome, a few constructive observations may be in order in the interest of building a truly powerful and sustained resistance.

This writer has attended all INDIA bloc meetings, including the formative gathering in Patna, Bihar, in June 2023 before the alliance adopted the INDIA name. Mr. Gandhi’s impassioned speech, delivered at a time when the BJP’s ‘double-engine’/National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments span over 20 States and Union Territories, was both reassuring and somewhat concerning. While it would have resonated strongly at a Congress meeting, parts of it seemed somewhat discordant in a gathering of 23 parties representing diverse ideological streams united in defence of India’s sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic.

Mr. Gandhi is right in reminding us that the Congress became a movement of resistance after Purna Swaraj (complete independence) became the official goal of the Congress. The resolution, introduced in the 1927 Madras session, and adopted two years later in the 1929 Congress session in Lahore, did propel the Congress into the leading position in India’s freedom movement, with communists, socialists, and what is now known as the Phule-Ambedkar-Periyar stream serving as other prominent stakeholders. We must not however forget that the Purna Swaraj idea was first presented in the Ahmedabad session of the Congress in 1921 by two communist delegates, Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Swami Kumarananda. And Bhagat Singh and his comrades made a clear and bold ideological statement with the launch of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1928.

The battle against authoritarianism

The battle today is between the only ideological stream that stayed away from, and often opposed, the freedom movement and the diverse ideological currents that fought for and won India’s independence. The INDIA alliance represents a regrouping of these forces against the Hindutva school of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-BJP, which is seeking to reshape state institutions and the architecture of parliamentary democracy to advance its ideological agenda.

If the BJP gets a free hand in its push for ‘one nation, one party’, the Congress will suffer no less than other political parties; indeed, it has often proved more vulnerable. For all our glorious chapters from the history of the freedom movement, there is no accumulated ideological insulation or immunity for any party in the face of today’s all-out fascist offensive and ideological assault. The BJP itself is filled with leaders who were in the Congress not long ago. Even as Mr. Gandhi emphasised the need to resist the BJP, the Congress’s Chief Minister in Telangana was proudly invoking Hitler while defending Hyderabad’s controversial demolition drive.

If institutions are captured and the electoral system manipulated — from voter rolls to vote counting and the declaration of results — what option remains for the people who inherited a Constitution that envisions India as a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic? Mr. Gandhi is absolutely right in arguing that the only answer is resistance — not sporadic or symbolic opposition, but sustained, broad-based and determined democratic resistance.

Towards a just republic

We can no longer afford policies that have proved disastrous for the country and the vast majority of its people. An economic model of crony capitalism that transfers all of India’s resources to a handful of corporations while impoverishing the masses and damaging the environment will have to go. A foreign policy that mortgages the strategic autonomy of India to the United States-Israel axis of aggression even as Indian sailors are killed by U.S. missiles needs immediate change. The assault on Adivasi land and forest rights, and attempts to rob them of their constitutional protections, must stop. A governance model that glorifies bulldozers and encounters while criminalising dissent has no place in a democratic republic. Equally, the ideology of cultural nationalism that defines nationhood through religious supremacy and exclusion must be rejected. Finally, an electoral system that sacrifices credibility and transparency needs urgent and comprehensive reform.

To be sure, such resistance is already underway. Farmers forced the Narendra Modi government to abandon the land acquisition ordinance in 2014 and, seven years later, repeal the three farm laws. The Shaheen Bagh-led movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019 sparked nationwide opposition to what many saw as a threat to constitutional values. More recently, workers’ protests across north India against rising workloads and diminishing wages have highlighted growing economic distress. Student demonstrations, led by organisations ranging from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) or left student organisations such as the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) or the new digital phenomenon called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), are demanding accountability for the deepening crisis in the education and examination system.

We must also acknowledge the price people have paid for this resistance. More than 700 farmers died during the historic farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders. Father Stan Swamy died in custody. Activists such as Surendra Gadling, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, among others linked to the Elgar Parishad and CAA protests, have been languishing for years. Workers and activists are facing imprisonment for demanding basic rights and fair wages. Activist Sonam Wangchuk appears to be a rare exception, having been released after months of detention under the National Security Act without any clear explanation. Journalists, too, have faced severe pressure, with Prabir Purkayastha among the few to secure relief after prolonged legal action.

Contrast this record of courage and perseverance among the people with the disturbing state of political parties, many of which are splitting or imploding under the pressure of intimidation or the lure of power. It is a reminder of how humble we must be when speaking of building resistance. The challenge before the INDIA bloc is to connect with these ongoing struggles, tap into the reservoir of public disillusionment, anger and aspiration, amplify demands for justice, and strengthen the collective struggle for democracy.

Reenergise the Opposition

The impact of two successive powerful struggles such as the equal citizenship campaign, the historic farmers’ movement, the message of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, and a series of encouraging electoral outcomes — from the BJP’s narrow escape in Bihar in 2020 to its defeats in West Bengal (2021) and Karnataka (2023) — created the ideal backdrop for the emergence of the INDIA coalition in 2023. Despite the exit of the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the absence of electoral coordination in States such as West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab, the INDIA bloc came close to defeating the BJP-led NDA in 2024. The results in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu — and, to some extent, Bihar — demonstrated INDIA’s electoral potential, raising the Congress tally to 100 seats and the alliance’s total to 234.

Since then, a series of electoral setbacks — beginning with the defeats in Maharashtra and Haryana in 2024 and Delhi in 2025 — has eroded the INDIA bloc’s strength and influence. These reverses, aided by multidimensional electoral frauds, have further tightened the BJP’s stranglehold over what remains of India’s electoral democracy. The INDIA bloc clearly needs a new impetus and a turnaround. Mr. Gandhi has a crucial dual role to play in this context — reenergising the Congress and facilitating the broader INDIA platform by ensuring mutual respect, trust and accommodation of parties with diverse histories and ideological inclinations. If India as a country can grow only on the basis of unity in, or rather through, diversity, the same also applies to INDIA as a political coalition.

Dipankar Bhattacharya is General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation