Rahul Gandhi, in an interaction with students at the University of Texas in Dallas, while addressing the Indian American community in the US state and in an interview at Georgetown University, spoke on several issues including Indian politics, unemployment in India and how India has the potential to compete with China and also women empowerment in India.
Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has been giving multiple speeches and addresses in the United States since Sunday, and none of those have gone down well with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, who called him a "black spot" in Indian democracy.
Rahul Gandhi, in an interaction with students at the University of Texas in Dallas, while addressing the Indian American community in the US state and in an interview at Georgetown University, spoke on several issues including Indian politics, unemployment in India and how India has the potential to compete with China and also women empowerment in India.
Rahul Gandhi arrived in Dallas for his four-day unofficial US tour on Saturday night and was welcomed by dozens of members of the Indian-American community led by senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda and president of Indian National Overseas Congress, USA, Mohinder Gilzian.
During his trip, Rahul Gandhi also plans to meet lawmakers and senior officials of the US government during his visit to Washington DC, which began on Monday.
While addressing the Indian American community in Texas, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said love, respect and humility are missing in Indian politics, accusing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP of believing that women should stay at home.
On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi had first interaction with the Indian diaspora after becoming Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha this summer.
During his interaction at the other event, Rahul Gandhi said that the attitude of Indian men towards women needs to change. The 54-year-old said he is a supporter of women’s participation in politics starting with the women's reservation bill. Gandhi said women should be supported financially if they want to start a business and they should be treated equally to men.
“The BJP and the RSS believe that women should be restricted to a particular role. They should stay at home, they should cook the food, they should not talk too much and we believe that women should aspire to whatever they want to do,” the Congress leader said.
"The RSS believes that India is one idea. We believe that India is a multiplicity of ideas," he said during his address to the Indian American community.
"Very much like the United States, we believe everybody should be allowed to participate. We believe that everybody should be allowed to dream, (and) everybody should be given space, regardless of their caste, language, religion, tradition, history,” he said.
In another interaction at Georgetown University, Rahul Gandhi said he might not agree with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's point of view but he does not hate him.
"I don't hate Mr. Modi. He has a point of view; I don't agree with the point of view, but I don't hate him. He has a different perspective, and I have a different perspective," Rahul Gandhi said.
Speaking about the Lok Sabha elections 2024 outcome, Rahul Gandhi said his sense halfway through the campaign was that "Modi didn’t think he was getting anywhere near 400 seats."
"Early on, he realised that things were going wrong, and we were getting inputs from the usual sources. Some of the intelligence agencies were also providing us with information. It was pretty clear that they were in trouble, and there was this internal conflict going on within the Prime Minister that I could see. Psychologically, it was like, 'How is this happening?" Rahul Gandhi added.
Appearing to answer a question on modern India, Rahul Gandhi gave credits to PM Modi, saying he "of course plays a central role", but added that he doesn't think "it's only about him". "Nor do I believe it started in 2014. The general dynamics, architecture, and forces that eventually brought Mr. Modi to power are older. I think modern India has long been engaged in this struggle—for or against the Constitution. That's really the heart of it—the idea that all Indians should be equal and treated equally versus a hierarchy of castes. This is the conflict, and it is not a new one. It's a philosophical battle, and it has its political structure," Rahul Gandhi said.
Addressing a gathering of several hundred Indian Americans in Herndon, a Virginia suburb of Washington DC, on Monday, Rahul Gandhi accused the RSS of considering some religions, languages and communities of being inferior to others and said the fight in India is about this and not about politics.
"First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. The fight is not about politics. That is superficial,” Gandhi said as he asked one of the Sikh attendees in the front rows to give his name. What is your name, brother with the turban," he asked.
"The fight is about whether a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India or a kada in India. Or he, as a Sikh, is going to be able to go to Gurdwara. That's what the fight is about. And not just for him, for all religions,” said Gandhi.
The BJP came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi over these remarks, saying the Congress leader is trying to create a "dangerous narrative" by speaking on "sensitive issues" abroad.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi that Rahul Gandhi's remarks were "sinister" in nature as he tried to spread falsehood among the members of the Sikh community living abroad to "eke out a living" and do not have much connection with India.
"I condemn is the strongest terms the statement he has made about Sikhs not being able to wear turbans and kadas," the BJP leader from the Sikh community said.
Referring to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that happened during the Congress's rule, Puri said, "If there has been one time in our history when as a community we have felt anxiety, a sense of insecurity and existential threat, it has been the times when Rahul Gandhi's family has been in the seats of power."
"In 1984, a pogrom was carried out against Sikh community. As many as 3,000 innocent people were killed. People were dragged out of their homes, tyres were put around them and burnt alive," Puri said.
Millions of people with skills are being sidelined in India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said in Dallas, Texas, and referred to Eklavya from Mahabharata, who had to chop off his thumb on his guru's demand.
During the interaction with students at the University of Texas in Dallas on Sunday, Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said that India does not lack skills, it lacks respect for skills.
"Have you heard of the Eklavya story? If you want to understand what is happening in India, it is millions and millions of Eklavya stories every single day. People with skills are being sidelined—they are not being allowed to operate or thrive, and this is happening everywhere," the official X account of the Congress quoted Gandhi as saying.
Rahul Gandhi, who is on a four-day unofficial trip to the US, said India's power won't get unleashed by "empowering just 1-2 per cent of the population." He said the US and other countries in the West are facing the problem of unemployment while China is not as it is dominating global production.
Rahul Gandhi stressed on the need to focus on manufacturing in India, saying that the West, America, Europe and India have "given up on the idea of production" and handed it to China.
"The act of production creates jobs. What we do, what the Americans do, what the West does, is we organise consumption... India has to think about the act of production and organising production," news agency PTI quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying.
"It's not acceptable that India simply says, okay, manufacturing, what you call manufacturing or production, is going to be the preserve of the Chinese. It's going to be the preserve of the Vietnamese. It's going to be the preserve of Bangladesh," Gandhi said.
"The only way to provide jobs for a large number of people is to start producing things, to start manufacturing," he said.
"Until we do that, we will face high levels of unemployment. And frankly, it's not sustainable," he added. "... If we carry on down this path of forgetting about manufacturing, you're going to see massive social problems coming in India and in the United States and Europe. The polarisation of our politics is because of this..." he further said.
Rahul Gandhi's speech irked the BJP and its key ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which on Monday accused him of “promoting” China and “undermining” India abroad and calling him a "black spot" in Indian democracy.
While Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accused Rahul Gandhi of trying to project China as the best nation, Civil Aviation Minister and TDP leader K Ram Mohan Naidu alleged that the Leader of the Opposition was making efforts to "demean" India on the global stage.
After the BJP attack on Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge backed him and slammed the ruling party, asserting he had never "insulted" India and would never do so. The BJP needs an excuse to raise such issues, he said.
"He (Gandhi) has never insulted India and will never do so. This is our promise... But BJP needs an excuse to raise such issues," Kharge said on the sidelines of a book launch event when asked to comment on the BJP attack.
Gaurav Bhatia, a national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, accused Gandhi of trying to weaken Indian democracy with his remarks abroad, in accordance with a “memorandum of understanding” (MoU) reportedly signed between the Congress and the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) during the UPA rule.
"But I feel sad to say that Rahul Gandhi is a black spot in Indian democracy. He does not even know what to talk about when he visits a foreign country," Bhatia told a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
Senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda has said that the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, is no "Pappu" and contrary to what the BJP promotes, he is "highly educated, well-read and a strategist".
Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, made the remarks while introducing the former Congress president to students at the University of Texas in Dallas on Sunday.
“He (Gandhi) has a vision contrary to what the BJP promotes by spending crores and crores of rupees. I must tell you, he is no Pappu. He is highly educated, well-read, a strategist with a deep thinking on any subject,” Pitroda said.
Rahul Gandhi has been referred to as ‘Pappu’ by his detractors for many years.