Congress president Rahul Gandhi today hit back at the ruling BJP for misrepresenting his comments related to the Islamic State terror group, saying it has adopted a "default position" of attacking everything he says.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused Gandhi of "belittling and insulting" India in his address in Hamburg on August 22, alleging that the Congress chief tried to justify terrorism and "lied through his teeth" to criticise the Narendra Modi government.
The ruling party demanded that Gandhi apologise for his remarks.
During the interactive segment of his 'India and the World' event at the House of Commons complex in London, Gandhi said that the BJP has adopted a default position of attacking everything he says.
"All I said (in reference to ISIS) was that there are a number of ideas running around and we must make sure we are giving a vision to all those people or somebody else will... it is very important that we involve people and carry people with us so that they feel part of nation building.
"Now that is not how the BJP describes what I said".
"The BJP attacks everything I say. It is their default position," he said in response to a question from the audience of the UK-based parliamentarians, local leaders and media.
The Congress president, who is on a two-day visit to the UK organised by the Indian Overseas Congress, tackled a range of subjects during his interaction in the UK Parliament complex.
The central focus of his message was on "conversation and listening" to the needs of the people as well as the diaspora.
"The way I see it, India is millions of people's voices and it is important to listen to as many as you can and help structure them.
"Today the farmers in India are screaming, small businesses are screaming: 'please do something about the GST'. It is our duty to see what can be done to help them and not just imposing a vision on them, which is what is happening in India today," he said.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out in India on July 1, 2017. It has replaced more than a dozen central and state taxes or Value Added Tax with an aim to create a seamless unified market for the USD 2 trillion Indian economy.
Gandhi also reiterated his message about job creation from his interactions in Germany earlier this week, attributing the so-called US-triggered trade wars to an underlying job crisis in the world.
"We are struggling to produce the numbers of jobs required. The western world can't answer how it will give jobs to its blue-collar workers. The Congress party has the vision for it," he said.
Gandhi, who began his UK visit with an address on 'India's Economic Growth and Foreign Policy in an Uncertain World' at the International Institute for Strategic Studies here, is set to address a gathering of students and academics at the London School of Economics before his mega diaspora interaction tomorrow.
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