Congress president Rahul Gandhi supported the Indian government’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying the democratic world has failed to come up with a vision to counter China’s undemocratic vision and calling for a new production and manufacturing system where India and the US can work together.
Rahul Gandhi also visited a technology incubator called Plug and Play in Silicon Valley, which has 250 startups, said Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of the Congress’ data analytics cell, who is accompanying Gandhi during his visit to the US.
Rahul Gandhi then participated in a fireside chat where he spoke about the importance of a decentralised ecosystem for technology, bureaucratic hurdles to regulating drones, and the need for appropriate data security and privacy policies. In relation to the Pegasus spyware revelation, Gandhi claimed that his phone had been tapped and turned to the phone and said, “Hello Modiji”.
While Gandhi argued that his expulsion from parliament offered him greater political opportunity than he had previously, he insisted that his international engagement should not seek support from India’s internal political battles, a key criticism leveled at him by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
During an interaction at Stanford University on Wednesday evening (Thursday morning IST), when asked about India’s stance on the war in Ukraine, Gandhi offered the most categorical statement yet of his support for India’s stance. “We have a relationship with Russia. We had a relationship with Russia. We have certain dependencies on Russia. So I would have a very similar attitude to the Indian government. At the end of the day, we have to look after our interests as well.”
Gandhi said that India’s size meant that it would always have relations with a large number of countries. “We will have better relations with some countries while developing relations with others.” The balance is there. But to say that India will not have a relationship with this group of people is difficult for India.”
Gandhi is on a six-day visit to the US. After spending two days in San Francisco and the Bay Area, he arrived in Washington, DC, on Thursday to engage with the US capital’s think tank, diaspora, and press community.
Gandhi said that when he entered politics in 2004, he never imagined that he would be disqualified from Parliament. “Being the first person to get the full sentence for defamation, getting the maximum sentence, being expelled from Parliament It didn’t occur to me that something like this was possible.” But he added that it gave him a “tremendous opportunity”, a bigger opportunity than he would have had in parliament.
Responding to a question about how the opposition usually does not seek support from abroad and has become “rogue” in some ways, Gandhi said that he does not seek support from anyone. “I am absolutely clear that our struggle is our struggle… But there is a group of young students from India, and I want to have a relationship with them. I want to talk to them. It is my right to do so. I don’t understand why the prime minister doesn’t come here and do that.”
Describing the relationship between India and China as “harsh”, Gandhi said, “They have occupied part of our territory. it’s rough. It will not be an easy relationship. But India cannot be pushed. That certainly cannot be allowed and will not happen.”
Gandhi also spoke of democracies struggling with the concentration of wealth, growing inequality, and the inability of the political system to keep up with the pace of technological change and social media. “There is a bit of a lag between the political system and technological progress, and democracies struggle with that… The systems are not designed for this level of connectivity. So it will take some time. But it happens.” Gandhi said social media creates an asymmetry of information, brings people together, and creates silos with their own belief systems. “So it paradoxically reduces the conversation.”
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