Intolerance, anger reign supreme in India, says Rahul

DUBAI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said here Saturday India has witnessed a great deal of intolerance and anger in the last four and a half years, which has stemmed from the “mentality of the people in power”.

Gandhi, who is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the second day of his maiden visit to the country, said India did not force one idea on the people and can absorb multiple ideas.

“India has shaped ideas and ideas have shaped India. Listening to other people is also an idea of India,” he said while interacting with the students at the IMT Dubai University as part of his global outreach programme ahead of the general elections.

He said it was harder to make sports a number one priority in India as the country faces bigger challenges like hunger. “Tolerance is embedded in our culture. But we have seen a lot of anger, division among communities for the last four and a half years. It stems from the mentality of the people in power,” he said.

“We don’t like an India where journalists are shot, where people are killed for what they say. That is something we want to change, that is the challenge in the upcoming elections,” he said.

He said healthcare was a “huge opportunity” for India in global perspective. “We are sitting on the biggest genetic resources on the planet and that is what cure and medical health is going to be about in next 10-15 years,” the Congress president said.

“Brain Drain’ was a 20th century idea. In the 21st century people are more mobile and go where real opportunities are. One should make sure that your country provides opportunities,” he said.

Gandhi said India needed to reshape its banking system so that small and medium enterprises can get financial resources in order to scale up to become large companies.

On Friday, too, Gandhi had made similar remarks while praising the UAE for declaring 2019 as the ‘Year of Tolerance’.

“At here (in the UAE), it is the ‘Year of Tolerance’, but back home (in India), I’m sad to say we have been witnessing intolerance for the last four-and-a-half years,” Gandhi had said in a veiled attack on the Centre.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Dubai late on Saturday, Gandhi reacted to the SP-BSP alliance, saying that he had a “tremendous respect” to the leaders of the two parties and “they have a right to do what they want to do”. “BSP and SP have made a political decision. It’s on us on how to strengthen the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh and we will fight with our full capacity,” he said.