Rahul Gandhi’s address to NRIs in New York: Unemployment to intolerance — what he said

Rahul Gandhi in New York. (source: Twitter)

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi On Wednesday evening addressed a gathering of NRIs in New York where he spoke on a range of issues including the Indian economy, India’s healthcare system, and the job market. Gandhi, at the event organised by the Indian Overseas Congress, also spoke about the Congress Party’s vision for India’s future and how the NRI community in America could par-take in building that future.

Here are the highlights of Rahul Gandhi’s address to the NRI community in New York

Empowering the youth
Rahul Gandhi spoke about what he termed as the biggest challenge in India – empowering the youth. “For every 30,000 youngsters entering the job market, only 450 get a job. India cannot give a vision of a future if they cannot give the youth a job. Congress party has a vision, by focusing on building the small and medium businesses and entrepreneurship and creating ‘millions and millions of jobs in India.'” Rahul Gandhi also spoke about universities in India which, he said, need to be connected to the economy and businesses across the world.

India’s growing ‘intolerance’
Rahul Gandhi said that the image of the country as peace-loving and harmonious is being questioned. He said, “There are forces in our country that are dividing the country and it is very dangerous, for it ruins our reputation abroad. In a violent world, many countries are looking at India to find answers for a peaceful and harmonious co-existence, as India has done for many years. We need to maintain this challenge by building a unified approach by bringing people together.” Rahul Gandhi mentioned India’s growing friendship with US and hinted at China’s rise in power as a threat.

Building Healthcare in India
The Congress vice-president also spoke about the healthcare infrastructure in India which can be more than ‘health tourism’. He said, ‘India performs a very large number of surgeries, heart surgeries, eye surgeries, we have a great understanding of how to do these things.’ If planned in advance there can be a future where large parts of medical processes in the world that could be carried out in India.

Farmer crisis in India
He spoke about the tense farmer situation in the country by pointing that agriculture simply cannot be ignored, and the way forward is to empower the farmers. He said that ‘We need to develop a cold chain, put food processing units close to farms so that the produce does not rot. There are people from Punjab here, you will understand exactly what I am saying.’ He said to a small round of applause from the audience.

NRI contribution
NRIs are the backbone of our country, infact the original Congress movement was started by NRI’s- Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, B R Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel all of them used the knowledge they gained from the outside world to come back and transform India. Gandhi said that he met with the Indian diaspora in the US and saw how they brought about a change in the their country and hoped that they would help contribute in building a better future back in India