Washington, June 2 : Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has said that there is a definite capture of institutions and media in India and the result of Karnataka and the next upcoming Assembly elections will be an “indicator” of what is going to happen as there is anger within people.
Addressing media here at the National Press Club, Gandhi on Thursday said, “There is a definite capture of institution and press. I am not convinced that… I don’t believe everything I hear. I walked across India and walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and talked directly to millions of Indians and they don’t seem to be very happy.”
“They were very clear they were serious about issues of unemployment, price rise and there was angst in the people. Look at the Karnataka elections and the next three to four elections. That will be an indicator, that’s going to happen,” he added while responding to a query on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Asked about the condition of Indian economy, the Congress leader, who is on a six-day visit to the US, said, “What we see on the ground is massive unemployment and dramatic increase in prices and this is one of the reason why we won in Karnataka as there was feeling in india that there is a set of people who have huge amount of wealth and there are large number of people who are poor and struggling.”
“Huge income disparity and huge unemployment as it is at 40-year high. So to say economy is doing well I don’t quiet agree with it,” Gandhi added.
He noted that the central difference between how we (Congress) see it and how the BJP sees.
“We believe in decentralisation of power, we believe in small and medium industries as they are the engine of growth in India and they tend to concentrate power and wealth in few limited people. So I would say broadly that is the difference,” the former Lok Sabha MP said.
Asked about the rights of minority in India and what would Congress do if it comes to power, he added, “India has a very robust system already in place. That system has already weakened. But it’s not that the system does not exist, if the democratic conversation will be allowed to foster then these issues will settle themselves.”
“You have to have independent set of institutions that are not controlled and pressurised, that has been the norm in India. This is an average which is taking place in India. From our perspective the foundations of democracy in India are very strong. And the protection exist but that has been sort of disturbed.”
He said that the Congress is the party which conceptualised those (independent institutions) in the first place.
“We don’t view them as our institutions but we view them as institutions of the state. So we ensure that there was independence and neutrality in these institutions. And it’s not difficult to do what you are trying to do,” the Congress leader said.
Gandhi is also scheduled to participate in several programmes during his US tour.
He has already delivered a lecture at the Stanford University and also interacted with the Indian diaspora in San Francisco.(IANS)