March 13, 2019
Chennai : Casually attired in jeans and T-shirt, AICC president Rahul Gandhi charmed his audience at the Stella Maris College here during a pre-poll interaction with the student community. In keeping with the surroundings, Rahul Gandhi wooed the women voters, roughly half the voting population, with a promise of reserving one third jobs in government for women as also 33 percent seats in the Lok Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi took questions from the youthful audience on a range of issues from his party’s economic agenda to Jammu and Kashmir to brother-in-law Robert Vadra to GST to Modi in a freewheeling exchange with the student community. He said if voted to power, the UPA government will procedures in Goods and Services Tax (GST) and have a low single tax rate.
Gandhi observed that the status of women in general was better in south India as compared to the north India.
If the UPA came to power, he said it would pass the Women’s Reservation Bill to reserve 333 percent government jobs in central and state governments to women.
When asked about his views on Modi, the Congress leader said he did not hate Modi but has only affection for him.
“Love is the foundation of every religion whether it is Hinduism, Islam or Christianity. I was watching the Prime Minister speech in the Parliament where he was criticising my father, grand-mother, great grand-father and the Congress party,” he said.
“Inside me, I was feeling affection for him. He was so angry that he was not able to see the beauty of the world,” Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi’s interactive session was energetic with participation from the youth. They shouted their responses to questions posed by Rahul Gandhi.
“I learn from Modi. I don’t hate him. Do you hate the person who teaches you,” Gandhi asked to students and got a big NO as the answer.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the immediate thing to be done was to engage the local populace for a solution. We have to build a bridge with the people there. It was built between 2004-2014 during the UPA government. “Pakistan will do terrorist activities. But we have to engage with the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Congress president said.
He then launched out an all out attack on the issue of demonetisation that he described as a scam.
“The money deposited in the banks by people during demonetisation was given to businessmen,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi then said that the central government had become north India centric and felt that all parts of India should have equal say.