New Delhi [India], March 5 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during an interaction with the Indian diaspora in London, said that he found during the Bharat Jodo Yatra that the main issues in the country are price rise, unemployment and violence against women and third is a hidden issue.
Speaking at an interaction here on Sunday, Rahul Gandhi said, “I was allowed to speak at the Cambridge University to give a talk there, on Indian politics and global politics, which I did, and it’s quite a nice atmosphere there. I was thinking, while I was talking there, that it’s quite strange that an Indian politican, a leader can give a speech at Cambridge University, and Harvard University but he can’t give a talk in a university of India. Attacking the centre, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Opposition is not allowed to raise issues in Parliament.
“The reason is our government simply does not allow any idea of the Opposition, any concept of the Opposition, to be discussed. Same happens in the Parliament House, when there are important things we have to talk about, Demonetisation, GST, the fact that Chinese were sitting inside our territory. When we try to raise these questions, we are not allowed to raise them in the house,” he said.
He added, “It’s a fact, it’s shameful, but it’s true, and this is not the India that all of us are used to. Our country is an open country where we pride ourselves on intelligence, respect each other’s opinion, listen to each other. And that narrative has been destroyed.”
Rahul Gandhi said that the idea behind the Bharat Jodo Yatra was to directly go to the public. “The reason we are forced to walk across India, the Bharat Jodo Yatra, was that all the institutions that protect the democracy, that allow the people to speak, that allow an expression of voice are captured by the BJP. And so we decided that a good way to think about it, a good way to act would be to go directly to the people of India. And do what used to be a tradition. The Yatra is not just a walk across the country,” he said.
The Congress leader said, “Many great people in India have gone on yatra, the most famous yatra was done by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Vivekananda ji apparently walked across the country. Guru Nanak Ji walked across the country. So there’s a list of people, who used this idea of yatra. And this yatra is actually an introspection, an attempt to listen to the people, and an attempt to listen to the voice of the people.”
Talking about the yatra, Rahul Gandhi said, price rise, unemployment and violence against women are the main issues in the country. “So it was a wonderful experience for me, we started from Kanyakumari, and went all the way to Kashmir, thousands of kilometres in the heat, in rain, in the snow. And we got to understand our country in great detail, we spoke to thousands and thousands of people, farmers, and students like you. We met youngsters, and the main issue, was violence, price rise, and the violence the Indian women face,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The Wayanad MP added, “The third one is a hidden issue, and no one talks about it, but when you walk across India and talk to people, these were the three main issues that you get. Most women complaining about the violence they are facing, the fact that they are worried to walk on the streets, huge amount of unemployment, price rise and concentration of wealth.” (ANI)
“At the heart of BJP’s ideology is cowardice,” says Rahul Gandhi at London event
New Delhi [India], March 6 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during an interaction with the Indian diaspora in London, launched a scathing attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and said that “at the heart of their ideology is cowardice”, mentioning External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s remarks on China.
Rahul said, “They have an ideology of hatred, violence, a disrespectful ideology that attacks people because of their ideas. You must have noticed one thing. This is in the nature of the BJP and the RSS. If you have noticed a statement by the foreign minister, he said China is much more powerful than us. How can I pick a fight with them? At the heart of the ideology is cowardice. Savarkar has written in his book that once he and his friends beat up a Muslim man and that day they felt great happiness. So if five people beat up a man and one person is experiencing happiness, then this is cowardice only. If you want to fight then go fight single-handedly.”
“This is there in their ideology and the foreign minister in the country is saying it. You imagine him saying China is stronger than us, we don’t fight with them. The British were stronger than us, so we should not have fought with them. How would we have gotten Independence had we followed BJP and RSS principles? At the heart of their ideology is cowardice. That is the lesson for everybody,” remarked Rahul.
Stating that he had only got better, Rahul said, “The more they attack me, the better it is for me. The more I understand, the more I learn. This is the fight between courage and cowardice. It is a fight between respect and disrespect. It is a fight between love and hatred.” Reiterating what he said during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi mentioned that he has come to open ‘nafrat ke bazaar mein Mohabbat ki dukan’ (spread love in the atmosphere of hatred).
Highlighting his learning experience of the yatra, Rahul Gandhi said, “The interesting thing for me was what the people of India were saying. Unemployment, prices, the concentration of wealth, and Mr Adani. It is not in the media at all. In the media, we see anger, hatred, and violence. Then we see Bollywood, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, and cricket, we see all these things. But we don’t see the real issues the people of India are facing.”
“We walked for almost 4,000 kms. It was a huge effort. In the first five or six days, I started to ask myself what is my role in the yatra. My role is that whoever came in the yatra, regardless of being rich, poor, young, old, male, or female, I decided my role would be to make them feel when they came to speak to us, that they had come back home. I told the people who were working with me that listen, we have to respect every single person who comes and he has to feel he has come home and when he leaves he must feel that he has left home. We do not want a political relationship with him, we want an emotional and family relationship with him,” the Congress leader added. (ANI)
