NEW DELHI, Jan 9 (Agencies) : Congress president Rahul Gandhi promised to give a "new, shining" Congress with a vision on Monday even as he accused Modi government of abetting religious hatred in the country and failing to create jobs for the ever increasing entrants in the job market.
In his first trip abroad after taking over the reins of AICC, Rahul told a convention of NRIs in Bahrain that Congress was not an ordinary institution but a party which had beaten the British out of the country. "I assure you that Congress has the power to defeat BJP in 2019 elections," he said in response to a question from the audience.
"I am here to tell you what you mean to our country, that you're important, to tell you there is a serious problem at home, to tell you that you're part of the solution and that I am here to build a bridge between wherever you are in the world and home," he said in his address to the Global Organisation of People of India Origin.
In his address - the first since he took over as the Congress chief - Mr Gandhi kept his focus on the problems of the young and alleged that the BJP-led government was trying to benefit from it. He accused the government of dividing people on the basis of caste and religion and said it was channelling the fear of jobless young people into "hatred between communities".
Targeting the Modi regime, Rahul said BJP government's "signaling was wrong" which was encouraging violence in the name of religion and cultural differences. "The starting point is what is in your heart, 'neeyat'. I cannot even imagine an India where all our people do not feel part of India. So the starting point is that you believe that everybody, regardless of religion or status, is Indian... now, when there is violence or somebody is threatened, there is a silence.
There should not be silence, government should make its position clear," he said. As in Berkeley during his US trip, Rahul said the twin challenges facing India were rise in sectarianism and failure of the government to create jobs. He alleged BJP was diverting the anger among the youth over joblessness towards religious hatred.
The Congress chief said China was creating 50,000 jobs every day while India was creating only 400, adding that job creation was at an eight-year low while new investments were lowest in 13 years. He said Indian diaspora had lost hard-earned money because of policies like demonetisation.
Several NRIs from all over Gulf nations were present at Rahul Gandhi's event. Well known NRI entrepreneurs of Mangalurean origin, Dr B R Shetty, Ronald Colaco, UAE Exchange president Sudhir Shetty were among them, who attended the meet.
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