Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that he was “anti-monopoly” and not “anti-business”.

The Congress leader was responding to criticism of an editorial he wrote in The Indian Express a day prior, titled A New Deal for Indian Business.

“I have been projected by my opponents in the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] to be anti-business,” Gandhi said in a post on social media. “I am anti-creating oligopolies. I am anti-domination of business by one or two or three or five people.”

The economy would thrive if there is free and fair space for all businesses, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, adding that he was “pro-jobs, pro-business, pro-innovation, pro-competition”.

In the editorial in The Indian Express on Wednesday, Gandhi said that the government cannot be allowed to support one business at the expense of all others. “Our institutions no longer belong to our people, they do the bidding of monopolists,” he said.

However, the Congress leader added that there were a larger number of “play-fair” Indian businesses in contrast to the “match-fixing” monopoly groups. “You persevere in an oppressive system,” he said,

Gandhi gave the example of the eyewear company Lenskart and the information technology firm Tata Consultancy Services, among others, as a “tiny sample of homegrown companies” that had innovated and chosen to play by the rules.

Responding to the article, the BJP called it “another baseless accusation” against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. In a post on social media, the party said that the “so-called ‘match-fixing monopoly groups versus fair-play businesses’ is simply misleading”.

“Dear Baalak Buddhi, do not jump to conclusions without examining facts!” the party said. “Listen to what these companies have to say about the support they’ve received from PM Modi.”

The party also shared video clips featuring the top executives of nine companies named by Gandhi in his article and asked the Congress leader to listen to their views on Modi’s leadership and economic policies.

In Wednesday’s editorial, Gandhi also said that monopolists had accumulated “colossal wealth” while the country grew “far more unequal and unfair” for the rest of the population.

When other businesses competed with these groups, they were fighting the “machinery of the Indian state” and not only the companies, he added.

“Their core competence is not products, consumers or ideas, it is their ability to control India’s governing institutions and regulators – and, in surveillance,” he said. “Today, market forces do not determine success, power relations do.”

While it wasn’t clear who Gandhi was referring to, the Congress has frequently accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government of favouring conglomerates owned by industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.

The Congress leader claimed on Thursday that after the article was published, several fair-play businesses told him “that a senior Minister has been calling and forcing them to say good things on social media about PM Modi and the govt's programmes”. He added that this proved his point exactly.

On October 29, Gandhi alleged that the Adani Group was benefiting from a “syndicate” seeking to secure monopolies for the conglomerate in India’s civil aviation, shipping, cement, power and defence industries.

He claimed that the Union government and its regulatory bodies, such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India, were part of a “dangerous nexus” at the heart of the alleged syndicate.