Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, leader Rahul Gandhi. File
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
Targeting the Narendra Modi government for “promoting” monopolies, the Congress on Friday (October 9, 2026) said India needs a level playing field where every business has a fair chance to compete.
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said the Congress was committed to breaking the chain of crony capitalism.
His remarks came a day after his exchange on X with U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, who asked whether Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani was the “real boss” of India.
Mr. Musk’s comment came amid reports that his company, Starlink, was yet to receive the required security approvals to operate in India.
Responding to Mr. Musk’s post on Thursday (October 8), Mr. Gandhi said: “Wait till you discover the other guy.”
While the BJP criticised the Opposition leader for what appeared to be an endorsement of Mr. Musk’s comments, Mr. Gandhi issued a fresh statement.
“The Congress party and I are committed to breaking this chain of crony capitalism and building an economy driven by innovation and hard work — not political patronage,” Mr. Gandhi said in a Facebook post accompanying an earlier video. “I am not anti-business; I am anti-monopoly,” he had said in the video.
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP of implementing “economic terrorism” by curbing competition.
“The objective of Modi ji’s economic policy is to hand over control of the economy to his favoured capitalist cronies, so that, in return, the BJP maintains its share in the profits. By ending competition and imposing monopolies and duopolies, they have only worked to fill the BJP’s coffers and have ruined the foundation of economic liberalisation,” Mr. Kharge said.
He alleged that the BJP government had weakened competition across sectors, pointing out that the number of major private players in telecommunications had fallen from 13 (before 2014) to three, while domestic aviation had shrunk from seven to two.
Mr. Kharge said the same trend was evident in areas such as digital payments, food delivery and cement industry.
“The Congress party is the mother of economic liberalisation … The BJP only implements ‘economic terrorism’ for its own profits, as a result of which MSMEs and other small and medium industries have been completely shut down, and our youth are enduring the curse of severe unemployment,” he added.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram also defended Mr. Gandhi, saying his post on X responding to Mr. Musk’s comment was laced with sarcasm and humour, but that this had been lost on most people.
“This is not in any way an endorsement of Elon Musk or of the policy of the Government of India, or of the angst which Elon Musk has,” he said.
Published – October 09, 2026 09:19 pm IST
