How and why Rahul Gandhi thinks US politicians are different from Indian leaders

Addressing students at University of Texas, Congress leader spoke extensively on Bharat Jodo Yatra's transformative impact & drew parallels with Mahatma Gandhi’s political journey.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi interacts with students at University of Texas in Dallas | Photo: ANI

New Delhi: In his first trip abroad as the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi Sunday drew a contrast between politicians in the US and India, saying that while an American political leader offers the dream of a “promised land”, an Indian leader “listens to what others are saying”.

He also made political attacks on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), inviting charges of being a “traitor” from the BJP. But it was Rahul’s attempts to dovetail politics with philosophy that stood out on his day one of engagements in the US.

Rahul said the idea of the “destruction of the self” was at the “heart of Indian politics” and religious traditions.

According to the senior Congress leader, the idea defined not just his own politics but also found reflection in the journey of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the lives of Hindu deities Rama and Shiva.

Rahul was speaking at an interactive session with students at University of Texas in Dallas, in what was his first public event in the ongoing three-day visit during which he also addressed the Indian diaspora and is set to hold a press conference at National Press Club in Washington DC.

“If you look at our big leaders, and historically, you can see extremes. So you can see a Buddha who’s extreme. You can see Bhagwan Ram, same thing. You can see Mahatma Gandhi. The basic idea is the destruction of the identity. The basic idea is the destruction, the destruction of the self, right? And listening to what others are saying. So to me, that’s Indian politics. That’s the heart of Indian politics, and that’s what an Indian leader is. That’s how an Indian leader is different from, say, an American leader,” Rahul said.

“An American leader will say to you, listen, we got to go there. I am going to take you there, the promised land. Let’s go. The Indian leader attacks himself. (Mahatma) Gandhi essentially attacked himself. Totally different concept,” he added.

Incidentally, the memoir of Barack Obama on his years as the US president is titled ‘A Promised Land’.

Rahul spoke extensively on the transformative impact of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, explaining it as an “attack on myself”, helping produce a “completely different” way of thinking and relationship with the people.

Speaking about the yatra, Rahul also drew parallels with Gandhi, saying the latter had also “essentially attacked himself”, referring to Bapu’s transformation into an ascetic politician from a regular student who “wore nice suits, had his hair combed”.

“And then slowly you start to see that those things start to fall away. His clothes fall away. His fancy suits fall away. Everything falls away. So there’s sort of almost a destruction of the person taking place. And you can see this. You can see this in many of our leaders. And the reason it’s happening is because the person is actually dying, and the voice of other people is taking over,” he explained.

Rahul’s remarks came in the context of his attempt to define the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the nearly 4,000 km walkathon that he led from Kanyakumari to Srinagar between September 2022 and January 2023 that is credited with reviving the Congress’s political fortunes to some extent.

At the University of Texas, Rahul also responded to questions on the state of the Indian economy and unemployment. He criticised India’s lack of focus on manufacturing, identifying it as a major factor behind the country’s job crisis.

“India has an employment problem. There are many countries in the world that don’t really have an employment problem. China certainly doesn’t have an employment problem. Vietnam doesn’t have an employment problem. So, there are places on the planet that are not struggling with unemployment,” he said, pointing out that even Bangladesh “has wiped us clean in textiles” production, regardless of the current political turmoil there.

He identified the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as an impediment on this front. “Our GST is designed against production. It rewards consumption and states that produce are harmed,” he claimed.

On Sangh vs Congress

At a separate event in Dallas, where he addressed the Indian diaspora, Rahul attacked the RSS—ideological parent of the BJP—saying that while the Congress saw India as a “multiplicity of ideas” and a union of states “just like the USA”, for the Sangh, India was “one idea”.

“This is the fight, and the fight was crystallised in the election, when millions of people in India clearly understood that the Prime Minister of India is attacking the Constitution of India… they were saying that the BJP is attacking our tradition, attacking our language, attacking our states, attacking our histories, and most importantly, what they understood was that anybody who is attacking the Constitution of India, is also attacking our religious tradition,” Rahul said.

And immediately after the poll results, he said, “the fear of the BJP vanished. Nobody in India was scared of the BJP or the prime minister.”

Responding to Rahul’s remarks, Union minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh told ANI: “To know about RSS, Rahul Gandhi will have to take many births. A traitor cannot know the RSS. Those who go abroad and criticise the country cannot know the RSS. It seems that Rahul Gandhi goes abroad only to defame India.”

‘Devta is the idea that you destroy yourself’

Rahul sought to illustrate his point on self-destruction by invoking the concept of “devta” in Hindu religious tradition. He said contrary to perception, devta does not mean god but a person whose internal feelings are the same “as his external expression, meaning he’s a completely transparent being”.

“That’s the definition of devta. It is the idea that you destroy yourself. So, to me, that is interesting about our politics. How do you suppress your own ideas, right? How do you suppress your own fear, or how do you suppress your own greed? Or how do you suppress your own ambition and absorb other people’s fear, other people’s ambition,” he said.

“You know the idea of Shiva? Basically, when they say, Shiva is the destroyer. What is he destroying? He’s destroying his ego, destroying his structure, and destroying his beliefs. So Indian political thought, Indian political action, is all going inwards… so a good scientist is also that, or a good engineer, a good yogi,” he added.

In his first speech as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha in July, Rahul had sparked a political firestorm by accusing the BJP of spreading “violence, hatred and lies” which, he said, were against the basic tenets of Hinduism advocated by Lord Shiva.

While his speech in the US was not the first time that Rahul turned philosophical to describe the transformational effect the Bharat Jodo Yatra had on him, it was certainly his lengthiest elaboration in this regard.

Previously, in December 2022, speaking to reporters in Indore after the yatra entered Madhya Pradesh, Rahul had said: “I let go of Rahul Gandhi years ago. Rahul Gandhi is in your mind, not mine. Try and understand, this is our country’s philosophy.”

In January 2023, addressing a press conference in Haryana, he had remarked: “Rahul is in your mind, I have killed him. The person that you are seeing is not Rahul Gandhi. Read Hindu religion, read Shivji, you will understand. Don’t get surprised.”

At the Texas university Sunday, Rahul said the Bharat Jodo Yatra had also introduced the idea of love in the political discourse of the country, adding that it was a novel attempt not just in India, but globally as well.

“The word love in the discourse… it just doesn’t exist anywhere. You will find hatred, you will find anger, you will find unfairness, you will find corruption, you will find all these words, but you will never find the word love in (political) language, and the Bharat Jodo Yatra actually introduced that idea into the Indian political system. And it has amazed me how that idea has worked,” he said.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)