Speaking at Washington DC metro area on Monday (local time), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the Indians in the US are the bridge between the two countries.
The Congress leader said that the Indian diaspora has two identities- that of the US and India. They can transfer the US and Indian ideas back and forth.
“You are the bridge between these two great unions of states. And you make us very proud because we understand that what it meant for you to come here. We understand the difficulties and struggles you faced. But when you came here, you came with humility, respect and affection… You did not say that United States is inferior to us, or that you hate the United States… You are proud of India and proud of the United States,” he said.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said that the Congress’s message is to spread love, not hatred.
“As per the BJP, you cannot have two identities. You cannot be an Indian, and at the same time an American. That is what the fight is about… We are saying that don’t spread hatred, spread love. Don’t be arrogant, be humble. Don’t disrespect people, communities, religions, traditions, languages… If you don’t do this, you will never be successful… You will take American ideas and values back home and will bring Indian values, traditions and ideas to the United States. You will help both states by doing this,” he said.
He alleged that the RSS does not understand India.
“And the problem is, these people don’t understand India… India is called a union of states. In the Constitution it is written clearly- India, that is Bharat, is a union of states. It means it is a union of languages, traditions, histories, music, or dance,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that the RSS believes that certain states and communities are inferior to others.
“The RSS is saying that certain states, languages, religions and communities are inferior to others. This is what the fight is about. We are of the opinion that… all of you have your history, tradition and language. Every single one of them is as important as any other one. What would you do if somebody told you that you cannot speak Tamil? How would you feel? How would you react? That is the ideology of the RSS- That Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Manipuri- are all inferior languages. It ends up in the polling booth, Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. But the fight is about what type of India we are going to have. Are we going to have an India where people are allowed to believe what they want to believe?… Or we are going to have an India where only few people can decide what is going to happen,” the Congress leader said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)