The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back, with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place, says Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

He, however, asserts that a 'new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come'.

In an opinion piece in the Indian Express, Gandhi says that India was silenced by the East India Company, and it was silenced not by its business prowess, but by its chokehold.

The Company choked India by partnering with, bribing and threatening more pliant maharajas and nawabs, he points out.

'It controlled our banking, bureaucratic and information networks. We didn't lose our freedom to another nation; we lost it to a monopolistic corporation that ran a coercive apparatus,' he writes.

The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago, but the raw fear it then generated is back, he claims.

A new breed of monopolists has taken its place, amassing colossal wealth, even as India has become far more unequal and unfair for everybody else, Gandhi says.

'Our institutions no longer belong to our people, they do the bidding of monopolists. Lakhs of businesses have been decimated and India is unable to generate jobs for her youth,' the former Congress president says.

Sharing the article on X, Gandhi added, 'Choose your India: Play-Fair or Monopoly? Jobs or Oligarchies? Competence or Connections? Innovation or Intimidation? Wealth for many or the few?"

'I write on why a New Deal........

© National Herald