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Updated: Jan 15, 2019 08:33 IST

Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reinforced his image as a mass leader whose message finds resonance with Indians all over the world, the party said in a press statement on Monday.

During the trip last week, Gandhi received an enthusiastic response and held meetings with several groups, including construction labourers, students, business leaders and the media. He also held closed-door meetings with senior members of the UAE government, the party said.

It said the showpiece event of the Congress president’s UAE tour was a massive public meeting at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, where over 30,000 Indians from across the UAE and the Middle East were in attendance.During his tour, Gandhi addressed the issues of “unemployment and the agrarian crisis”, and spoke against divisiveness. He interacted with students and business leaders, and visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Gandhi also discussed the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, the controversy over women’s entry into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple and the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Rahul’s Tour Recap

In his visit to the UAE, the Congress president touched upon some of the key talking points in present-day India. Highlights of what he said:

On Intolerance

India has witnessed a great deal of intolerance and anger in the last four and a half years which stemmed from the “mentality of the people in power”, he said.

“Ideas have come to India, they have been shaped by India and India has been shaped by them. Listening to other people is also an idea of India,” he said, interacting with students at the IMT Dubai University as part of his global outreach programme ahead of the general elections.

“Tolerance is embedded in our culture and it is quite sad to see what has been going on back home in the last four and a half years. We have seen a lot of intolerance, anger and division between communities. It stems from the mentality of the people who are leading,”Gandhi said.

Gandhi said if the leadership is tolerant, it will act in a tolerant way and spread that message. “India is generally tolerant, we tend to listen and need to go back to that,” he said.

“We don’t like an India where journalists are shot, where people are killed for what they say. That is something we want to change, that is the challenge in the upcoming elections,” he said.

On UP Alliance

Hours after the SP and BSP announced their alliance without the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi said his party will fight the elections in the state with “full capacity”. At a press conference in Dubai, Gandhi said he has a “tremendous respect” to the leaders of the two parties and “they have a right to do what they want to do”. “BSP and SP have made a political decision. It’s on us on how to strengthen the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh and we will fight with our full capacity,” he said. “Congress party has tremendous to offer to the people of Uttar Pradesh...I have tremendous respect to the leaders of BSP and SP, they have a right to do what they want to do,” he said.

On Sabarimala

Gandhi also said he cannot take an “open-and-shut” position on Sabarimala issue as there is validity in arguments of both sides.