RAHUL GANDHI’S EUROPEAN TOUR

  31-Aug-2018 14:40:44

Rahul GandhiEurope

The Congress president Rahul Gandhi was on a four-day visit to Germany and UK for a conversation titled ‘India’s economic growth and foreign policy in an uncertain world’. The trip was organised by the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) in Berlin with the help of IOC chairman Sam Pitroda. Rahul Gandhi used this Europe tour to reach out to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) - a group largely known to support Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent years. He criticised the Government on a range of issues from demonetisation to the border dispute with China at Doklam. Throughout the tour, he targeted the Prime Minister for his style and policies, bitterly attacked BJP and RSS and tried to project him and the Congress party as a better alternative.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on 24th August attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling him episodic and said that he lacks a coherent policy with regard to Pakistan and views Doklam as an event.

Speaking at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, Rahul trained his guns on the Modi Government’s foreign policy and said,

“If you understand deeply the design of India, you will see that we are punching below our weight. I don’t see India maximising its power”.

Rahul raised last year’s Doklam standoff, which saw Indian and Chinese soldiers engage in a near 70 days face off on the Doklam plateau and talked about a range of issues from India’s foreign to economic policies.

“I would like to say that even with Pakistan, they lack a coherent strategy. There is no deeply thought out strategy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it comes to Pakistan,”

Said Rahul Gandhi at his third high profile Europe trip engagement. The Congress president stated that it is very difficult to converse with Pakistan because there is no institution that holds supremacy. So we wait until they come to form a cohesive structure.

Sitting along with Sam Pitroda and Manish Tewari, Rahul Gandhi said,

“Although we have a traditional link with the Chinese, with regards to the democratic structure, we have more in common with European countries’’.

“Doklam is not an isolated issue. It was a part of a sequence of events, it was a process. If he was carefully watching the process, he could have stopped it’’, he slammed the BJP led Government at the centre for not solving the Doklam issue.

On being asked about having ties with Russia and other countries, Rahul Gandhi said, “We see the world as a complex place and are flexible in our approach”. Interacting with the Indian origin parliamentarians, he said,

“Businesses had expected a lot from Prime Minister Modi. But they are disappointed and are willing to support us. But today, there is an immense amount of pressure on India’s businesses. One of my main complaints about the current Government in India is that I don’t see a coherent strategy based on India’s strengths. I only see knee-jerk reactions by creating divisions among 1.3 billion people, India’s strengths are reduced’’.

While concluding his interaction at the International Institute of Strategies Studies in London, Rahul said, “The west did not believe in India in 1947. But India proved the west wrong. What allowed us to succeed is that thousands and thousands of people built the institutions and these are the institutions that are under attack today’’.

Speaking to the journalists on Saturday (August 25), he mocked PM Modi for not talking to them openly. He accused the Prime Minister of not having the courage to answer reporters’ questions. It was meant to be a speech on India’s economy and foreign policy, but Rahul Gandhi converted into an electoral pitch for the second consecutive day. His singular target was the Prime Minister Narendra Modi- led Government.

He said that the degree of violence he witnessed in his life has made him more compassionate. Mr Rahul Gandhi held meetings with Senior Labour Party Politicians including the party’s shadow ministers on trade. He launched a working group of professionals and experts from the U.K and Europe which will create a blueprint for an affordable health care system for India over the next six months.

Gandhi started similar tours about a year ago to interact with global communities and NRIs after the formation of Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) by the Congress to increase its footprints abroad. He has so far visited US, Middle East, Singapore and Malaysia as a part of Congress outreach program. Rahul Gandhi still has a long way to go.

He still appears to lack new ideas and the political shrewdness required to take on Modi. But his Europe tour suggests that Modi and the BJP will have to take him seriously because this was a new Rahul in London more mature, aggressive, confident and ready to challenge his rivals.‘

Written by:

AshikaSheraffin