After his captivating speeches at the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi once again showed his interactive side at New York Times Square.
Rahul Gandhi addressed the Indian National Overseas Congress there, at the end of his two-week long tour of the United States.
Rahul Gandhi reminded 30 million Non Resident Indians that the original Congress movement for Indian Independence was spearheaded by NRIs. Be it Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Chandrashekhar Azad or Sardar Vallabhai Patel, a vast majority of India’s founding fathers used their exposure to the world beyond India to return with transformative ideas to transpose into our cutting edge democracy.
The Congress vice-president urged NRIs to participate with the Congress, given the grand old party is the best organisation in terms of recognising powerful ideas in their own strength and in greatly amplifying individuals’ elasticity of impact.
Rahul Gandhi said India’s reputation as a country of peace and harmony is in danger abroad because of divisive forces at work at home and urged the NRIs to stand up against “those dividing the country.”
NRIs were called upon by Rahul Gandhi at this important crossroads in world politics to nurture India’s most important asset, which is 1.3 billion people allowed by the Congress’ ancient inclusiveness to live together peacefully and be stakeholders in India’s success.
With his characteristic commitment to consensus building across party lines, Mr. Gandhi calls on Prime Minister Modi to eschew the politics of hate to come together with him to solve India’s most pressing problem that only 450 of India’s 30,000 new jobseekers every day are able to find employment.
For Mr. Gandhi, the crisis we face whereby 40% of India’s food rots also presents an opportunity for at least a million new jobs in agriculture if the right linkages are created in agriculture and farmers are empowered rather than ridiculed by the Modi Sarkar.
Mr Gandhi spoke about how colleges are knowledge networks and Indian institutions must build these networks as a means of furthering competitiveness worldwide. This will only happen if premier Indian institutions like IITs and IIMs networks are connected to international industries and businesses.
If there is one thing the Congress Vice President has left us with, it is this: India cannot give youngsters a vision without giving them a job.