Rahul Gandhi slams Modi govt, says joblessness major cause of lynchings

Speaking at the Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg in Germany made a strong attack on the Narendra Modi's govt and spoke about lynchings, joblessness, violence and more

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who reached Hamburg on Wednesday as part of a four-day tour of the United Kingdom and Germany, made a strong attack on the Narendra Modi government by referring to incidents of lynching, attacks on Dalits, women safety, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation. 

Speaking at the Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg in Germany, the Congress President also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over attacks on women, "lack of jobs," demonetisation and "flawed" implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and said corporates were being favoured over the rights of the marginalised communities. 

Here's a roundup of his speech:

On joblessness, lynchings and Dalit attacks: 

Gandhi said all sections should benefit from transformation taking place due to urbanisation and the previous Congress and other governments had created support structures to smoothen the process of change for the Dalits, tribals but the Modi government was the only one not following the idea.

"They do not feel that every single person in India should have access to fruits of transformation. They feel that tribal communities, poor farmers, Dalit, should not get the same benefits as the elite of the country gets. We feel everybody took the risk, everybody should get the reward," Gandhi said.

"The other thing they have done is they have started attacking the support structures that were designed to help certain groups of people," he added.

Gandhi  said welfare measures of UPA government such as the right to food and the right to guaranteed employment had been weakened and money going into these schemes "is going into the hands of very few people, the largest corporates in the country."

The infamous hug:

Gandhi, who later took questions from the audience, also referred to his hugging the prime minister during the debate in parliament on the no-confidence motion, saying certain "hateful remarks" made against him by Modi prompted him to do so but "he (Modi) didn't like and was upset by it".

The Congress leader is in Germany as part of reach out to the NRI community ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections. He will also go to the United Kingdom.

GST, demonetisation making India 'angry': 

Gandhi alleged that demonetisation carried out by Modi had taken away lakhs of jobs as it had destroyed cash flow of small and medium businesses.

"China produces 50,000 jobs every 24 hours, India only 450," Gandhi said, adding that bad implementation of GST had let to closure of thousands of businesses.

"These things are what has made people in India angry. That is what you get to read in the newspaper. When you hear about lynchings in India, when you hear about attacks on Dalits in India, when you hear about attacks on minorities in India, that is the reason for it," Gandhi said.

He said the transition that is shaping the world requires certain protection for people. "That protection is being taken away and India is reacting to that. It is very dangerous in 21st century to exclude people. If you do not give people a vision in the 21st century, somebody else will which is not going to be good. That is the real risk of excluding large number of people from our development processes," he said.

On violence and safety of women:

Speaking on prevalent violent measures executed in India, the Congress president said that hate is a dangerous thing in a connected world and it is a choice. "I can fight you, take you on. I can compete with you but hating you is something I have to actively chose to do."

Gandhi also said his main complaint with Modi is that India has jobs problem but he does not say it and asked how it will be fixed if it is not even acknowledged.

Addressing the safety of women in the country, Gandhi said level of violence is increasing in India and "women were getting a huge share of it." He called for a change in the attitude of Indian men at the way they treated women.

He said non-violence in India was a foundational philosophy of India's nationhood and noted violence can only be fought by non-violence.

Priyanka and I were not happy after Prabhakaran was killed:

Gandhi inhis speech also mentioned the killings of his family members. He said that he and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were not happy after his father's (Rajiv Gandhi) killer, LTTE chief Prabhakaran was killed, as they felt "the violence inflicted upon him had impacted others, including his children".

Referring to the assassinations of his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his father Rajiv Gandhi, he said the only way to move forward after violence is forgiveness.

"My grandmother (Indira Gandhi) and my father (Rajiv Gandhi) were both killed. So, I have suffered violence. I am talking actually from experience. The only way you can move forward after violence is forgiveness. There is no other way. And to forgive you have to understand what exactly happened and why it happened," he added. 

On India's relation with United States and China: 

Gandhi also answered questions on the US and China and said that India's role will be to balance like that of Europe.

He said India's actions will be guided by self-interest and noted that it is closer to the US than to China.

"There are different visions in the world, including that of the US, China and India. India has a strategic relationship with the US, and we share some ideas like democracy with them. But India cannot ignore that China is growing very fast and is going to shape the planet. India's role is to balance these two powers," Gandhi said in his address in Hamburg.

Referring to Modi coming to power in India and "certain style" of leaders coming to power in the US and some European countries, he said the reason was failure of jobs, particularly to non-white collar persons.

"We are outcompeted by Chinese. That is creating a lot of anger," he said.

He also said India was not in a race with China but was wanted to develop according to its values.

The Congress President, who is on a four-day visit to Germany and the United Kingdom, will address the Indian Overseas Congress in Berlin on Thursday.

Thereafter, Gandhi will visit the United Kingdom, where he will address an event organised by the Indian Overseas Congress in collaboration with local Indian-origin parliamentarians.