Rahul Gandhi

Gandhi’s remarks at the gathering of business leaders, diplomats, political leaders and commentators at the summit, come at a time the BJP and the Congress are preparing for assembly elections in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, as well as Telangana in the south, seen as a precursor to next year’s general election. The Congress has been trying to project the BJP as a party that is against the interests of farmers, the minorities and underprivileged lower castes -- a perception that the ruling party has been trying to dispel.

Dealing with the specifics of the proposed ‘grand alliance’ to take on the NDA in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections at the summit, the theme of which was ‘Reimagining The Future’, Gandhi, 48, who succeeded his mother Sonia Gandhi in December as party president, said that the Opposition had agreed on a two-stage process -- the first was to come together on one platform to defeat the BJP and the second was to choose the leadership after polls.

When asked if he would be open to being the prime ministerial candidate if his party and allies so insist, Gandhi replied, “If they want me, yes sure I will.”

Referring to the recent decision of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati not to tie up with the Congress in state elections at the end of 2018, Gandhi said he had indications that this did not foreclose a 2019 alliance.

On Friday, railway minister Piyush Goyal responded to Gandhi’s comment that the Congress had a vision of an India of 1.3 billion imaginations. Goyal likened it to the imagination of the fabled character Sheikh Chilli. “We are working on the imagination of Mahatma who called for Congress to wind up shop,” Goyal said at the HT Leadership Summit. “We have reached out to the imagination of the poor day in and day out”.

The Congress president also spent time in outlining differences between the organisational character of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Congress - and also between Hindutva and Hinduism. He was asked about his visits to Hindu places of worship in poll-bound states. “Hindutva is a political ideology and Hinduism is a philosophy. My visit to temples has nothing to do with Hindutva. I have been going to temples, mosques, churches and gurudwaras but it got publicised only in Gujarat. It irritates the BJP, they don’t like me going to temples,” he said, dismissing suggestions that the Congress had adopted a ‘soft Hindutva’ approach to counter the BJP. “It actually infuriates them because they have a sense of monopoly on everything.”

Attacking the BJP and the RSS, Gandhi said an “ideological war” was taking place in the country. “The people who define the BJP ideology are the RSS. The BJP does not have an understanding of the core ideas that they are fighting for, the RSS has. On the other side, there are multiple visions contesting that and the Congress is the ideological centre,” he said.

“Congress party cannot and should not develop the cadre system that the RSS has. The aim of the RSS is to capture all the institutions, we don’t want that,” he said.

Gandhi was critical of the NDA government over its foreign policy vis-a-vis Pakistan, China and Nepal.

“Pakistan is a special neighbour. It has structural problems. Pakistan is four or five different institutions and it is very difficult to understand who to speak to. Pakistan carries out terrorist activities in India. We have different type of relations with Pakistan but there is a lot of room for conversation with Nepal and Sri Lanka,” he said.

“Nepal is a good case [in point] . Nepal went from being really excited about Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hating him within two months.”

On relations with China and the United States, the Congress chief said, “India has to navigate its way and stand straight between these two powers. India has to maintain its integrity and its confidence between these two massive powers. And that’s not going to happen with a tactical foreign policy. We need a strategic foreign policy.”

Gandhi alleged that national institutions were being destroyed under t he NDA regime. “Supreme Court judges are compelled to go public because they feel intimidated,” he said in a reference to an unprecedented January press conference addressed by four senior judges who expressed concern at the way the apex court was being run and cases being allocated to various benches.

“The sole qualification of vice chancellor after vice chancellor chosen to lead India’s top universities is that they belong to the RSS,” he said.

The Congress chief said no new government institutions had been set up in the past four years.

“Fresh thinking is unwelcome. They hate thinkers like (former Reserve Bank of India Governor) Raghuram Rajan, (Nobel laureate) Amartya Sen and the list goes on.”

Gandhi also spoke about the economy and accused the government of having “decimated” it. “The rupee is on its knees. Petrol is at an all-time high. The stock market has imploded. Rs 12 lakh crore in non-performing assets (have piled up) and the banking system is jammed shut,” Gandhi said.

“The informal sector has been decimated as a result of demonetisation and an extremely complex multi-layered GST (goods and services tax). Millions of small and medium businesses have been wiped out. Public confidence is in tatters. This is the price of hatred,” he said.

Gandhi said he has learnt a lot from his mother Sonia, most important being value of patience, as he spoke about the similarities and differences between their styles of functioning.

“I have learnt a lot from her. She has taught me patience. I used to be much more impatient and she taught me how to be more patient. That’s something she is very good at. Sometimes I tell her she is too patient. I think that we both tend to listen… That would be the similarity,” he said.

Asked about differences, Gandhi said, “She told me yesterday that she goes on gut feeling and I go on thinking. I don’t know if I agree with that. How I view it is that leadership is an evolution and it is something that is constantly changing.”

Asked if there was any “special person” in his life, Gandhi said, “I have a lot of special people in my life. I have my mother, I have my sister I have my friends I have many special people. There is no one special person, yeah.”