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, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday. He, however, asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come". In an opinion piece in The Indian Express, Gandhi said 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 pointed 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 said. The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago, but the raw fear it then generated is back, he claimed. A new breed of monopolists has taken its place, amassing