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Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 22 August, delivered an address at Bucerius Summer School in Germany’s Hamburg.
Gandhi, who reached Hamburg as part of a four-day tour of the United Kingdom and Germany, met Niels Annen, minister of state and member of Bundestag, the German federal parliament.
Gandhi and Annen discussed Indian and German politics, the devastating floods in Kerala, the GST and jobs.
Exclusion is Dangerous
Addressing the gathering, Rahul Gandhi said that it was important to “fight hatred by listening to people.”
Taking a dig at the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre, he said that demonetisation and “poorly-implemented” Goods and Services Tax caused distress to millions of people, leaving many unemployed.
Speaking about lynchings and attacks on Dalits and minorities, Gandhi said that excluding these groups from the development narrative “could be a dangerous thing".
The reason for lynchings in India, attacks on Dalits and minorities, is that the huge, powerful transformation that India is going through requires protection for people and that protection is taken away.
He went on to say:
If you don’t give people a vision in the 21st century, somebody else will. And that’s the real risk of excluding a large number of people from the development process.
Joblessness, Inequality the Cause for Lynchings
He also linked the incidents of lynching in India to joblessness and the lack of opportunities for the poor who, he said, were not being given equal opportunities.
Gandhi said the incidents of lynching were a result of the anger emanating from joblessness and destruction of small businesses due to demonetization and poorly implemented Goods and Services Tax.
Saying that the transformation taking place across the world requires certain protections for the common people, Gandhi accused the BJP dispensation of taking away these protections and hitting the informal economy through demonetization and GST.
They (the BJP government) feel tribal communities, poor farmers, lower caste people, minorities shouldn’t get the same benefits as the elite. The other thing they’ve done is they’ve started attacking the support structures created to help certain groups of people. That’s not the only damage they’ve done.
Gandhi said there is "something much more dangerous" that has happened, and that is - a couple of years ago the prime minister "demonetized the Indian economy and destroyed cash flows to small and medium businesses, rendering millions jobless".
Exclusion Leads to Insurgency
During his address, Gandhi said that after the US attacked Iraq in 2003, they brought a law that stopped a particular tribe in Iraq from getting jobs in the government and in the army.
It seemed like a very innocuous decision at that time.
But it resulted in a large number of people joining insurgency "that fought the US and caused massive casualties," he said.
It didn’t end there. That insurgence slowly entered empty spaces. It entered the empty space in Iraq and in Syria and then it connected with...a horrific idea called ISIS
He said there is a lot of hatred in the world but not enough people are listening. The only solution, he added, was to understand people.
Outlining his idea of India's foreign policy, Gandhi said there are different visions in the world, including that of the US, China and India. He said India's role should be to balance the US and China - much like Europe's role.
The Congress chief said he has suffered violence and he can say that there is only one way to let it go - that is forgiveness.
And for forgiveness, you need to understand where it is coming from. My father was killed by a terrorist in 1991. When the terrorist died a few years later, I wasn’t happy. I saw myself in his children.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was responsible for the killing of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was shot dead by Sri Lankan troops in 2009.
The Infamous Hug
The Congress chief also mentioned his famous hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament. He said some of his own party members did not like it when he hugged Modi during a debate on no-confidence motion against the government in July.
He said Modi was making "hateful remarks" about him but he showed affection. The basic idea is - it is foolish to respond hate with hate, as doing so would not solve any problem, Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi added the prime minister refuses to see joblessness as a big problem. "You have to accept the problem (first), to fix it," he said.
Gandhi also said he disagreed with the suggestion that India was the worst place for women in the world but admitted the rising incidents of violence against women in the country.
India needs to change... Men have to start viewing women as equal and with respect. I am sorry to say that men do not.
He added that non-violence in India is a founding philosophy of its nationhood and the essence of being an Indian.
During the visit, part of the party's NRI outreach programme, Gandhi is also likely to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sources said.
In Germany, he will address two meetings in the German cities of Hamburg and Berlin.
He will then visit the UK, where he will address an event organised by the Indian Overseas Congress in collaboration with local Indian-origin parliamentarians.
(With inputs from PTI)
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