Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who is on a six-day US visit, has once again reiterated his demand for caste-based census and has accused the BJP and RSS of attacking the Constitution of India.
He also said that the beauty of India is its diversity and attack on any language is an attack on the Constitution of the country, which he will not allow to happen.
Interacting with the Indian diaspora here, Rahul Gandhi, who is on a six-day visit to the US said, "India has never rejected an idea. Everyone who has come to India, India has welcomed them with open arms and absorbed their ideas. And that is the India we like, which is humble, which respects, that listens and that is affectionate."
He dubbed the Indians based in the US as the ambassadors of Indian culture and said that "it is the reason why all of you are here".
Taking a potshot at the BJP, he said, "And if you had believed in hatred, anger and arrogance then you would not be sitting here but in the BJP meeting and I would be doing 'Mann Ki Baat'. So thanks to everyone for holding our culture, allowing them to learn from our culture and allowing us to be proud as you all are our ambassadors. If the US says that Indians are intelligent, masters in IT, it is because of you all because you are holding the idea of respect and culture of India."
To a question about the central government trying to impose the idea of one language, the former Wayanad Lok Sabha MP said, "The definition of India in the Constitution is a union of states. And within our Constitution the idea of language, culture, history and each one of them has to be protected."
Slamming the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he said, "The BJP and the RSS are attacking that idea and the Constitution. For me Tamil is more than a language to Tamil people. It is not just a language, but it is their history, culture and their way of life. And I will never ever allow the Tamil language to be threatened because for me threatening the Tamil language is threatening the idea of India. Threatening Bengali, Punjabi, Kannada and Hindi all are attacks on India. Our strength comes from our diversity. Our strength comes from accepting that we are all different but we can work together."
The former Congress chief once again reiterated his party's push for the caste census.
"When we were in the system, we had carried out a caste census. The idea behind the caste census was to have an X-ray of Indian society to find out what are the exact demographics of the society, how many people of different communities, and different castes are there. So without knowing the demographics and who is who, it is difficult to distribute wealth and power effectively.
"And that is the reason why we are pushing the BJP for issuing caste census and they are not doing that and when we come to power we will do that," he said.
He also said that Congress is committed to make India a fair place and "we understand that India today in terms of treatment of Dalits, tribals, poor and minorities, is not a fair place."
"There is a Nyay Scheme which can provide minimum income to every Indian, schemes like MGNREGA, increase in public education, public healthcare and I think these are things that can be done to make it a more fair place," he said.
On a question over the women empowerment and the delay in the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament, the Congress leader said, "We are committed to it and we tried to pass it in last government but some of our allies were not happy with it and they didn't allow to pass that bill."
"So I am confident if we come to power we will pass that bill. We believe in empowering women and their participation in politics. Involving them in governance, business and politics is the way to empower them," he added.
Rahul Gandhi arrived here on Tuesday morning. He was travelling on an ordinary passport as he had surrendered his diplomatic passport following his disqualification as a MP.
Indian Overseas Congress Secretary Virendra Vashistha said that Rahul Gandhi's visit to the US is to spread the idea of love, and he will be interacting with different groups during his six-day visit.
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Started Bharat Jodo Yatra as BJP-RSS were controlling tools used for politics: Rahul
In an address to the Indian diaspora here, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he decided to launch his Bharat Jodo Yatra was because the normal tools used for politics were being controlled by the BJP and RSS.Rahul arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, kicking off his six-day visit to the US during which he is slated to meet American lawmakers, think tanks and also deliver lectures at the Stanford University and Harvard Club.
He is currently travelling on an ordinary passport, after he had to surrender his diplomatic passport following his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP.
In his address on Tuesday evening, Rahul Gandhi said: "Few months ago, we started a walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Prior to this, we found that the normal tools we used for politics like conversations like this, public meetings were not working in India.
"All the instruments we needed to do politics were controlled by the BJP and the RSS. People are threatened and we also found that it was in some way it difficult for us to act politically. That was the reason why we decided to walk from the southern-most tip of India."
Rahul also pointed out that when he started the yatra, he wanted to see what would happen next.
"After 5-6 days we realized that walking 4,000 km is not an easy thing. And I had an old knee injury that acted up and I thought that I was in real trouble. But I said I have no choice but to walk despite the pain. Then a surprising thing happened. I started noticing that after walking 25 km, I was not getting tired at all. We used to start at 6 a.m. in morning and finished walking by 7.30 p.m. and we I asked people walking if they felt tired, they also said that they were not tired.
"I realised what was actually going on, it was not us who were walking, it was India that was walking. And the large number of people coming from all walks of life were creating an atmosphere of love and affection. And everyone was walking together and that's where we came up with the idea, 'nafrat ke bazar me muhabbat ki dukan kholni hai'," he said.
He said that the government tried everything against his mega walkatahon, but the support grew.
Slamming the government, the Congress leader said: "The assault that is taking place in India is taking place on our way of life."
He then said that different languages and different people all are being attacked, adding that all great thinkers and gurus emphasized that one should not remain under the impression that one knows everything.
"The world is too big and too complicated for any person to understand that he knows everything. This is the only disease that we have in a group of people in India who are convinced that they know everything. And they think that they are sitting with God and having a conversation what is going on, And of course the Prime Minister is one such specimen," Rahul said.
"At the heart of this is mediocrity that they actually don't understand anything. Because in life you cannot understand anything if you don't listen. Biggest lesson I learnt from the yatra is that we have many things to learn from everyone.
"We as the Congress are committed in making India a fair place. We believe deeply that India today in terms of its treatment of Dalits, tribals, poor people, minorities is not a fair place. There's a lot that can be done," the Congress leader added.
Besides interacting with the Indian diaspora, Rahul is also meet venture capitalists, tech executives and students at Silicon Valley while in California.
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