He said Indian Muslims were most directly at the receiving end of hatred and aggression and that all minorities and the poor today in India were under attack
Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “specimen” of a group that believes it knows it all, even more than God, without understanding anything, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine is attacking the Indian way of life, the idea of India and the Indian constitution. He also said that India today was not a fair place for Dalits, tribals, minorities, and the poor.
Speaking to members of the Indian diaspora in California hours after his arrival for a six-day visit to the United States (US), Gandhi alleged that the government did everything possible to stop his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
He reiterated his support for a caste census with the objective of doing an “x-ray” of India to understand its demographics and “distribute power and wealth” more effectively. And while agreeing with a comment that Indian Muslims were most directly at the receiving end of hatred and aggression, the Congress leader claimed that all minorities and the poor today in India were under attack.
Even as Gandhi said he needed to understand the details of a possible delimitation exercise better before commenting, he cautioned against any “flippant” change in the representational structure and called for a fair process of negotiations.
He claimed the issue of sceptre or the Prime Minister lying down in Parliament — in a reference to Narendra Modi carrying the Sengol and prostrating during prayers during the new building’s inauguration — were distractions from real issues of unemployment and price rise that the BJP didn’t want to discuss.
In his opening remarks at the event, Gandhi said that Indian tradition and its political and spiritual leaders emphasised that it was important not to be under the impression that one knew everything.
“The world is too big and complicated for any person to know everything. That is the disease…There is a group of people in India who are absolutely convinced they know everything. They think they know more than God. They can sit with God and explain to him what’s going on. Our PM is one such specimen. If you sat Modiji with God, he will explain to God how the universe works and God will get confused about what have I created.”
Gandhi suggested that this group will explain science to scientists, history to historians, warfare to the army, and flying to the air force. “At the heart of it is mediocrity. They actually don’t understand anything. Because you can’t understand till you listen.”
Gandhi arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday morning and was received by Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda, who, along with Congress data analytics cell chief Praveen Chakravarty, is coordinating Gandhi’s visit to the US.
Gandhi is scheduled to speak at Stanford University on the theme of a new global equilibrium on Wednesday. On June 1, he will head to Washington DC where he will speak at the National Press Club, interact with think tanks at a closed-door Hudson Institute event, engage in meetings on Capitol Hill, and attend a private dinner hosted by prominent Indian-American diaspora figure Frank Islam.
On June 3 and 4, Gandhi will be in New York where he will meet intellectuals and academics, artists and cultural figures and address the diaspora at a public meeting. His visit just comes weeks before Modi heads to the US for a state visit at President Joe Biden’s invitation.
At the diaspora event in San Francisco on Tuesday evening, Gandhi began by speaking about the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “We were finding that the normal tools we used for politics — conversations like this, public meetings — were simply not working. All the instruments we needed to do politics were controlled by BJP and RSS. People are threatened…agencies are used on people. In some way, it had become difficult to act politically. And that’s why we decided to walk from the southernmost tip of India to Srinagar.”
Gandhi claimed that they did not feel any fatigue despite walking 25 km a day for “India was walking” with them. That is where, he claimed, they came up with the idea of “shops of love opening in a market of hatred”, the theme of the diaspora event.
As a set of protesters suddenly chanted slogans against Gandhi, he paused for a moment, turned to them, and said, “The interesting thing about us is we have affection towards everyone. If someone wants to come and say something, regardless of what they are saying, we are happy to listen. We won’t get angry, won’t get aggressive.”
Gandhi then alleged that the government did everything to stop the Yatra, including using the police, but the effect of the Yatra kept increasing. And that was because, he claimed, Bharat Jodo was an idea in everyone’s hearts. “It is about respecting each other and being affectionate to each other. Not being violent, not being arrogant.”
Gandhi suggested that much before them, Guru Nanak, Basavanna in Karnataka, Narayana Guru in Kerala, and Adi Sankaracharya had done the same and appealed for the need to listen to each other.
This is when Gandhi turned to attack the government. “The assault that is taking place in India is on our way of life.” After referring to Modi thinking he knew it all, Gandhi said that India always displayed an ability to welcome ideas, embrace them, and absorb them. “India respects the rest of the world. It listens. It is humble.”
Telling the representatives of the diaspora that they wouldn’t be at the event if they didn’t believe in those values, Gandhi said, to applause and laughter, “If you believe in anger, hatred, arrogance, you would be sitting in a BJP meeting. And I would be doing Mann ki Baat.”
He then lauded members of the diaspora for being the ambassadors of India, holding up the Indian flag in America, showing the American people what it meant to be Indian, respecting their culture, learning from them, and allowing them to learn from the diaspora.
Gandhi then took a set of questions from representatives of community organisations, including Tamil, Muslim, Christian, Dalit women, and student outfits that had helped organise the event.
In response to a question on the treatment of Muslims in India and the increased security threat perceived by the community, Gandhi said, “It is felt most strongly by the Muslim community because it is done most directly to them. But it is being done to all minorities. The same way you are feeling attacked, I can guarantee that my Sikh brothers, Christian brothers, Dalit and tribal community are feeling the same thing. Anyone who is poor in India today looks at the extreme wealth that a few people have feels the same way.”
Gandhi then said that the only way to challenge hatred was through “love and affection”, and suggested that through his Yatra, he had discovered, to his surprise, how easy it was to “erase hatred” in India.
“Indian people don’t believe in this stuff, hating each other, killing each other. It is a small group of people who have got control of the system, the media and are supported by big money. This isn’t a large mass of people. I can guarantee to you there are more people who believe in love than hatred, millions of more people,” Gandhi said, urging the questioner not to be pessimistic.
He added that India goes through these periods sporadically, and alluded to a phase in Uttar Pradesh in the 1980s when Dalits underwent similar attacks.
When asked by a member of a Dalit group about what the Congress would do to battle social and economic inequality that has enabled the rise of “fascism”, Gandhi said, “When we were in government, we had carried out a caste census. The idea behind it was to take an x-ray of Indian society. What are the exact demographics of our country? What are the different communities, castes? Without understanding our demographics, and who is who, it is very difficult to distribute wealth and power effectively.”
Gandhi said that they had been pressuring the BJP to release the caste numbers from the census. “They aren’t doing it. If we come to power, we will do that. We are committed to making India a fair place. India today, in terms of its treatment of Dalits, tribals, poor people, minorities, is not a fair place.”
In response to a question from a Tamil community representative about the alleged imposition of a uniform identity and suggestion that India replicate the US model of federalism, Gandhi said that the Indian Constitution defines India as a “Union of states”.
“Within the constitution is the idea that the languages, cultures, and histories of each one of our states have to be protected under the union. It is already incorporated in the constitution. The BJP and RSS are attacking that idea and the constitution of India. That’s the fact.”
Gandhi added that he understood clearly that the Tamil language was more than a language for the Tamil people; it was their history, culture, and way of life. “I will never ever allow the Tamil language to be threatened. Because for me threatening the Tamil language is to threaten the idea of India just like threatening Bengali or Kannada or Hindi or Punjabi are all attacks on India. Our strength, unlike many other countries, comes from diversity, accepting that we are all different but can work together. That is an idea that you and the Congress party are protecting.”
When asked about the delimitation exercise and the possible rise of representation of the more populous regions of north India — with the questioner suggesting that the government had decided on having over 800 members and this would entrench majority dominance over minorities — Gandhi said that he would have to examine how the government was thinking about it.
He did, however, add, “One has to be very, very careful when one changes the representative structure of the country. I would be interested in how they have come up with the number, and criteria they are using. They should not be doing it flippantly. India is a conversation; a negotiation. That has to be fair, meaning all parts and states of India should feel there is fairness in the process of negotiation.” The delimitation exercise hasn’t commenced, it has to happen only in 2026, and neither the number of seats nor the design has been decided yet.
Gandhi called the new Parliament House a distraction: “The real issue is unemployment, price rise, the spread of anger and hatred, crumbling education system, price of education and health. BJP cant discuss it. So they have to do things like the sceptre thing and lying down and all that. Aren’t you happy I am not lying down?”
Asked about the Congress’s stance on the women’s reservation bill and women’s safety issues, Gandhi said that when it was in power, the Congress was keen to push through the women’s reservation bill but had not got the requisite support from its allies. If it did return to power, Gandhi promised that this would be on the party’s agenda and linked it to the issue of safety. “If we empower women, involve them in the political system, create space in the governance of the country, in the businesses of the country, we will automatically make them safer.”
