Love, respect & humility missing in Indian politics: Rahul Gandhi

Washington: Love, respect and humility are missing in Indian politics, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said in his address to the Indian American community in Texas, where he also criticised the RSS for believing that India is "one idea".

Gandhi made the remarks on Sunday in Dallas during his first interaction with the Indian diaspora after becoming Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha this summer.

Belief of RSS

"RSS believes that India is one idea. We believe that India is a multiplicity of ideas," he said. "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.

“This is the fight. The fight crystallised in the election when millions of people in India clearly understood that the Prime Minister of India was attacking the Constitution of India. Because what I am saying to you is the union of states, respect to languages, respect to religions, respect to traditions, respect to caste. This is all in the Constitution,” Gandhi added.

Love, respect missing in Indian politics

In his address, Gandhi said his role was to inject values of love, respect and humility into Indian politics. “I think what is missing in our political systems and across parties is love, respect and humility. Love to all human beings, not necessarily only people of one religion, one community, one caste, one State, or to those who speak one language," he said.

"Respect to everybody who is trying to build an India, not just the most powerful, but the weakest and humility, not in others, but in oneself. I think that is how I see my own,” he added. Making an indirect reference to the Lok Sabha results in which the BJP failed to get a majority on its own, Gandhi said, "The people were saying the BJP is attacking our tradition, attacking our language, etc. What they understood was that anybody who is attacking the Constitution of India is also attacking our religious tradition."

Not accept attack on Constitution

“We saw that immediately, within minutes of the election result, nobody in India was scared of the BJP, or the Prime Minister. These are huge achievements. These are huge achievements of the people of India who realised democracy, of the people of India who realised that we are not going to accept an attack on our Constitution. We're not going to accept an attack on our religion. We're not going to accept an attack on our States,” he said.

Asserting that the US needs India and vice versa, Gandhi said the Indian diaspora is a "bridge" between the two nations. "In my view, you should travel freely between these two homes. You should bring the idea of India to the United States and the ideas of the United States to India,” Gandhi said in his remarks.

“You have a very important role because the relationship between these two unions is going to determine the future of both” the countries, he said.

Respect for skills

During an 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. In his address, Gandhi asserted that India's potential can be unleashed by respecting skills and supporting people with skills financially and technologically. "You won’t unleash India's power by empowering just 1-2 per cent of the population," he said.

Link education skills to business skills

"Bridging that gap or linking these two systems, skills and education, through vocational training is fundamental. I think, currently the huge problem with the education system is the ideological capture, where ideology is being fed through it...," he said.

Gandhi said he is convinced that India can take on China if it starts aligning itself for production and starts respecting skills.

"I'm absolutely convinced of it. States like Tamil Nadu have already shown it. It's not that Indian states have not done it. Pune has shown it. Maharashtra has shown it. So, it is being done, but it's not being done at the scale and with the coordination that it needs to be done," Gandhi said.

(Inputs from PTI)