Several members of erstwhile royal families, many of them affiliated to the BJP, took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Thursday over his article in The Indian Express in which he spoke about “pliant maharajas and nawabs” while making a case against monopolies compared to “fairplay business”.

While some royal family descendants accused Gandhi of “ignorance”, others called his remarks an “insult” to India’s history.

Responding to the criticism from BJP leaders since the article appeared on November 6, Gandhi said Thursday: “I want to make something absolutely clear. I have been projected by my opponents in the BJP as anti-business. I am not anti-business in the least. I am anti-monopoly, I am anti creating oligopolies. I am anti domination of business by one, two, three or five people. I started my career as a management consultant. I understand the type of things that are required for a business to succeed.”

Gandhi also claimed that since his article appeared, “many play-fair businesses are telling me that a senior Minister has been calling and forcing them to say good things on social media about PM Modi and the govt’s programs… Proves my point exactly!”

In his article titled ‘Match-fixing monopoly vs fairplay business – time to choose freedom over fear’, Gandhi wrote: “India was silenced by the East India Company. It was silenced not by its business prowess, but by its chokehold. The Company choked India by partnering with, bribing, and threatening our more pliant maharajas and nawabs.”

In a statement Thursday, Union Minister for Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Jyotiraditya M Scindia, a descendant of the Scindia royal family, said “those who sell hatred have no right to lecture on Indian pride and history”. “Rahul Gandhi’s ignorance about Bharat’s rich heritage and his colonial mindset have crossed all limits. If you claim to ‘uplift’ the nation, stop insulting Bharat Mata and learn about true Indian heroes like Mahadji Scindia, Yuvraj Bir Tikendrajit, Kittur Chennamma, and Rani Velu Nachiyar, who fiercely fought for our freedom,” said the BJP leader.

Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and Jaipur royal family descendant Diya Kumari said Gandhi was trying to “malign the erstwhile royal families of India”.

BJP Mysore MP Yaduveer Wadiyar, of the Wadiyar royal family, said Gandhi’s “lack of knowledge of true history is on constant display”. “His latest statement, via an article, reflects his ignorance of the contributions made by the erstwhile princely states towards today’s Bharat, the patronisation of Bharatiya Heritage, without which, we might have lost many of the traditions we hold dear today, and most importantly, the sacrifices they made towards the formation of a unified India. I strongly condemn his choice of words in the article, and the insinuations made by him,” said Wadiyar in a post on X.

BJP MLA from Nathdwara in Rajasthan Vishvaraj Singh Mewar, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Mewar, attached a screenshot of Gandhi’s article and posted: “Ignorance or intentional misrepresentation – ‘monopoly’ to ‘malign’?”

BJP MLA from Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) Shrimant Gayatri Raje Puar, who was married to the late Maharaja of Dewas Tukoji Rao Pawar Senior, said Gandhi’s piece “defamed India’s Maharajas, who were pillars of Sanatan Sanskriti”.

Former Congress leader and MLC Vikramaditya Singh, of the J&K royal family, said “the article reflects Mr Rahul Gandhi’s superficial understanding of history”. “The Maharajas’ contribution and role can hardly be reduced to simply ‘pliant’ to the East India Company. Many of these Maharajas were not handed over ready-made kingdoms to rule, but rather started from humble origins, as farmers and soldiers, who toiled and fought many battles to create their territories and later states,” said Singh, who had resigned from the Congress in 2022.

A member of the erstwhile royal family of Udaipur in Rajasthan, Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, said in a comment on Gandhi’s article that “the royal families of India, throughout history, have consistently embodied a spirit of cooperation in governance rather than resorting to control and exploitation”.

Reacting to Scindia’s remarks, Congress media department chairman Pawan Khera said the minister “took Rahul ji’s attack on the monopolistic corporation (implying East India Company) a little personally”. “This corporation had looted us by enslaving India by intimidating the Nawabs and Rajas-Princes of India with its grip,” said Khera.

Taking a swipe at Scindia, he added that “according to history, the role of the Scindia family of Gwalior was complex in the freedom struggle of 1857”. “Even in later years, the Scindia family generally followed a policy of cooperation with the British Raj.”

Congress spokesperson Subharansh Kumar Rai said those who saw themselves as royals should remember that it is 2024 and the country is ruled by the Constitution, before which everyone is equal. “The raja, maharaja and nawabs must remember that it is not 1971. There is the rule of the Constitution. What Rahul ji said yesterday was about inequality among business houses. If we give the country’s wealth to a few, like the East India Company, then we will fall prey to a system like under the British, despite being free,” said Rai.