India’s reputation in danger abroad, Rahul tells NRIs
India’s reputation for peace and harmony is in danger abroad because of divisive forces at work at home, Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi told Indian Americans at a community outreach here on Wednesday at the end of his US tour.
Everywhere he went, Gandhi said, he heard the same concern , “What has happened to tolerance that prevailed in India? What is going on in your country,” he said people would ask him.
“India has always shown the world how to live in harmony,” the Congress leader said. “India has a reputation for peace and harmony… this is being chalCongress lenged … there are forces that are dividing the country,” he said, adding, “This is dangerous for the country and ruins our reputation abroad.”
Gandhi has spoken against rising intolerance in India on this trip before, and forcefully, but he returned to it a few times in his remarks to the audience, many of whom wanted to know how the planned to confront it.
“How can you be killed for what you eat?” asked Kenneth Noel, a marketing executive who came here from Hyderabad more than 20 years ago, and has been a supporter of the Congress.
“Rahul must do this more often — come to speak to NRIs. That’s what the other guys (the BJP, especially PM Narendra Modi) do all over the world,” he said.
Comparisons between the two leaders were inevitable with another such outreach on a much grander scale just a mile down the road at the Madison Square Garden in 2014, where Indian Americans gave Modi a rockstar reception. “I saw a lot of young people at that event,” said Subbu Osuru, an IT professional.