New York: In an attack on the Narendra Modi government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that “divisive politics” is ruining the country’s reputation abroad.
“For thousands of years, India has had a reputation of peace and harmony. This is being challenged. There are forces in our country that are dividing the country. It is very dangerous for the country and it ruins our reputation abroad. Divisive politics is going on and it has to be fought," he said.
Rahul said people often asked him in the US about the situation in India. “India’s reputation in the world is very important. The world is transforming and people are looking towards us. Many countries in a violent world are looking towards India and saying may be India has the answer for the 21st century, maybe India has the answer for peaceful coexistence,” he said.
Rahul, who was speaking at an event in New York organised by the Indian National Overseas Congress, said India has many religions and different languages and people have been able to live happily together because of the ideas of the Congress.
“We cannot afford to lose our most powerful asset. Our most powerful asset is that 1.3 billion people lived happily, non-violently, peacefully. This is something that as Congress people, every single one of us has to defend,” the Congress leader said.
“I can see my Sikh brothers, I can see people from different states, India does not belong to any one of you. India belongs to this entire room, India belongs to single one of us and that is what the Congress party is,” he added
Gandhi said Congress as an organisation was more than a century old but Congress as an idea was thousands of years old.
“We do not represent an organisation, we represent a philosophy that is thousands and thousands of years old.”
He termed NRIs as the “backbone of the country" and said he was keen to involve them in the work of the party to discuss its vision forward.
(With agency inputs)
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