Even Bachchans, Ambanis are dynasts: Rahul

September 12, 2017 09:46

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressed students of the prestigious University of California, Berkeley on 'India at 70: Reflections on the Path Forward', in which he offered his views on contemporary India and the path forward for the world's largest democracy. Excerpts from his speech.

- There's a BJP machine, 1000 guys with computers, to abuse me, tell you I'm reluctant, I'm stupid. Here I am. Listen to me. Judge for yourself.

- All day they spread abuse about me, and the operation is run by the gentleman who is running our country

- Mr. Modi clamped down on the RTI (Right to Information). He shut it down. We got in trouble as we dramatically increased transparency

- Most of the country runs like this, so don't go after me, Akhilesh Yadav a dynast, Mr Stalin a dynast, Mr Dhumal's son a dynast

- Around 2012, arrogance crept into Congress party and we stopped having conversations with people

- Congress decides policy and vision through conversations and not by imposition

- I lost my father, my grandmother to violence, if I don't understand violence then who will?

- I am with 1984 riot victims in their quest for justice, violence again anybody I strongly condemn

- Government's economic policy of demonetisation and hastily implemented GST has caused tremendous pressure on economy

- Mr. Modi has certain skills, he is a very good communicator, much better than me

-- For 9 years I worked behind the scenes with PM Manmohan Singh,P Chidambaram,Jairam Ramesh and others on J&K

-- When we started, terrorism was rampant in Kashmir, when we finished there was peace, we had broken the back of terrorists.

-- By 2013,we basically broke the back of terror, I hugged PM Manmohan Singh and told him it was one of the biggest achievements.

-- PDP was instrumental in bringing youngsters in politics, but the day PM Modi made alliance with PDP, he destroyed them.

-- So he (PM Modi) massively opened up space for the terrorists in Kashmir, and you saw the increase in violence.

-- A lady from crowd heckles moderators at Rahul Gandhi programme and asks, "how is this free speech if you are controlling what is being asked.

-- Even Mr Abhishek Bachchan is a dynast, also Mr Ambani, that's how entire country is running.

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