At Princeton University, Rahul Gandhi lauds Make in India, criticizes its implementation
Having attracted much controversies with his remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies, during his visit to the United States, Rahul Gandhi now took a softer tone to laud the center’s initiative to promote ‘Make in India’. However, while the Congress vice-president agreed to support the concept, he further criticized the implementation of it. Speaking at the Princeton University in New Jersey, Gandhi opined that the NDA government’s initiative should be focusing more on the promotion of small businesses rather than make grow bigger ones.
Addressing the students at Princeton University, Gandhi said, “I like the ‘Make in India’ concept but they are not targeting whom they should. My implementation and focus would be slightly different. Large companies have a role to play, yet small- and medium-sized enterprises are where jobs come from.”
Continuing his attack on the Modi-government over the creation of new jobs for the youth, Gandhi stated, “A large part of our populations simply do not have jobs and cannot see a future and so they are feeling the pain. And they have supported these type of leaders. The problem is that the record on jobs of these leaders — I do not know Trump so I won’t go there — but certainly our Prime Minister is not good enough.”
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WATCH:Congress VP Rahul Gandhi's interaction & Q&A at @Princeton's Centre for International Security Studies #RGinUShttps://t.co/risau9fidj
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 20, 2017
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However, confessing that even the Congress party failed too in the objective to empower the nation, Gandhi said, “Frankly, the Congress party was unable to do it. But Modi is also unable to do it. It is a deeper problem, so we have to first accept it as a problem and then we have to unite at solving it. Right now nobody is willing to accept it.”
Further escalating attack on the Central government, he said, “There are two large migrations taking place- one is completely free and the other is centrally controlled. The systems respond differently. India and China are two huge countries that are transforming from agricultural countries to urban modern model countries. And that’s a huge chunk of the world population.”
“And how these two countries do is going to fundamentally reshape the world. It’s not my place to say that China should be democratic or not. They have chosen their path and we have chosen ours,” added Gandhi.
During his tour to the United States, Gandhi attended a series of meeting including a roundtable with eminent Indian/ South Asia experts hosted by the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Democratic-
leaning think tank. Earlier, addressing the students at the University of California, Berkeley, Gandhi spoke about issues varying from the dynastic politics to the 1984 riots. Speaking on ‘India at 70: Reflections on the Path Forward’, while Gandhi spoke about contemporary India, he further criticized the ruling Narendra Modi government over unemployment issues, newly introduced economic reforms and the ongoing unrest in Jammu and Kashmir.