By Arjita Mishra: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in San Francisco for a three-city US tour during which he interacted with the Indian diaspora. He interacted with activists, academics and civil society at the University of California on May 31.
During a speech, Rahul Gandhi said India is being run by a group of people who are ‘absolutely convinced’ they know everything. “They could sit down with God and explain things and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one such specimen,” he said.
Taking a jibe at PM Modi, he said, “I think if you sat Modi Ji down next to God, he would start explaining to God how the universe works. And God would get confused about what I have created.”
He said, “There’s a group of people who understand everything. They can explain science to scientists, history to historians, warfare to the Army, and at the heart of it is mediocrity, they actually don’t understand anything.”
Talking about the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi said, “We were finding it difficult to act politically due to misuse of agencies and therefore, we decided to start Bharat Jodo Yatra.”
He said that the government tried everything it could do to stop the Yatra, but its impact kept on increasing.
Rahul Gandhi said that they (Congress) believe in the values of being respective and affectionate towards people of all faiths and religion. Exhorting the NRIs at his address, Gandhi said, “That’s the India you represent. You would not be here if you did not agree with these values. If you believed in anger, hatred, and arrogance, you would be sitting in a BJP meeting and I would be doing ‘mann ki baat’.
Talking about language politics that took centre stage a few months ago, the Congress leader said he won’t allow anyone to threaten regional languages. “If anyone attacks any language, then it’s an attack on India,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said that it is important to have a caste census.
“The BJP will not release the numbers of the caste census. The treatment of Dalits, tribals and minorities should be fair. When the Congress comes to power, then we will do it,” he said, adding that the party will make India a much more equal and fair place to live.
Talking about Sengol, Rahul Gandhi said that PM Modi and his government cannot address issues like unemployment, price rise, the spread of anger and hatred. “The BJP can’t really discuss these issues so they have to do the sceptre thing,” Gandhi said, referring to the Sengol that was installed in the new Parliament building by PM Modi on Sunday. A controversy erupted after the BJP said that it was a historical sceptre from Tamil Nadu that was given to India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to symbolise the handover of authority from the British in 1947. However, the Congress said there was no evidence of this.
