PUNE: Thousands of college students participated in the interactive session called ‘Pune Students Dialogue - We are the change’ with President of Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi on Friday in the city. The students who participated in the event said that they witnessed that Gandhi has undergone a major transformation but claimed that they found that his vision was less convincing. The students who interacted with him claimed that their questions were misinterpreted and answers were rather diplomatic.

“As compared to his previous session, he has changed. He knows how to mould things and he maintained his calm when some students started shouting slogans about PM Modi, which I found admirable. He is a good person but when it comes to his political vision, Modi has a better vision than him,” said Kushagra Singh, a Bharati Vidyapeeth student.

Yash Seth, a student of New Law College, Bharati Vidyapeeth, who asked a question on how to deal with demonetisation output, said that his question was misinterpreted by Gandhi. He said “The answers he gave were diplomatic. The question which was raised by us was misunderstood. I wanted to know what was the output or the results of demonetisation. He misinterpreted the question and said it was very bad and I was not satisfied with the answers.” 

“It is a good initiative that he has started interacting with students but he was diplomatic throughout the event. There was hardly any link between the questions and it appeared that he came prepared with the answers,” said Muskan Rani, New Law College, Bharati Vidyapeeth.

On the other hand, another student of New Law College, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Isha who asked a question on women’s empowerment, was convinced about the answer but also found Gandhi too diplomatic. She said, “I was convinced with his answer. He is interactive but not very outspoken though. I felt he was a bit conscious when he was asked about Modi and very diplomatically said that he liked him. He was being  diplomatic.”

“These kinds of interaction may help him because there are chances that 20 per cent of students may feel convinced by him post the meet,” he added

“As a person, he is nice but his ideas were not convincing, especially what he spoke about the NYAY,” said Amit Kumar, another student who attended this event.

“He spoke about bridging the gap between university education and corporate requirements, which is absolutely right. He is interacting with students which is great but if he really wants to bring about a change and interact with students and listen to our ideas, he should come to our colleges and meet us and not at some events where 1,000 students are participating and only 10 questions are allowed,” said Achal Jain.

“I felt that instead of highlighting this event as an interactive session with students, he politicised it,” said Sakshi Parihar, College of Ayurveda, Bharati Vidyapeeth.

Rohini Gaikwad, a student of Savitribai Phule Pune University, who asked a question about underpaid labour with high skills felt that Gandhi misunderstood the question. She said, “He misunderstood my question as job creation. May be I was not audible enough to him. Although, whatever he spoke on job creation, it was very practical and convincing without using any exaggerated figures.”

This event also saw live performances by Mrigya band and We company and was hosted by RJ Malishka and filmmaker Subodh Bhave.