PTI

London, Apr 30: Admitting that corruption and caste are holding the country back, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says he wants to see India compete successfully with every other country and strive to eradicate poverty.

"India is rising, but I want to see it compete successfully with every other country, and I want to transform what you see here - poverty," he said in an interrview published in 'The Sunday Times' on April 30.

Rahul, 35, said it was the killing of his father Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 by a Tamil suicide bomber that made his mind up to enter politics.

"When he died I felt he was doing certain things to modernise the country and he was cut short. What he was doing was on the right track. He was bridging the gap between modern India and traditional India," the Congress MP said.

Referring to the plight of poor people in villages, Rahul said "I would like to help these people have the same living standards you have." He further said he would like them to have better living standards than in the West. "We're not here to take (British) jobs, we're here to empower ourselves.

"We're a poor country. We have a lot of people in the villages with tremendous potential for entrepreneurship but it is denied to them. Corruption is holding people back, caste is holding us back," Rahul said.