On foreign soil once more, Rahul Gandhi directed a number of attacks at the Modi government and let rip on the state of affairs in India, providing little by way of fact but plenty of rhetoric, including making a sweeping generalisation about women's safety in the country by calling it a cultural issue and seemingly justifying the creation of ISIS with an eye on so-called 'jobless growth'. However, presented with a chance to spell his own vision for India, the Congress president tied himself into a knot, appearing to not being able to decide whether he wanted India to be a global player or simply a mediator between the US and China.

The Congress president was headlining an interaction at the Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg, Germany, and during the audience questions, he was asked back-to-back about where he saw India in the grand scheme of things.

In response, Rahul Gandhi listed what he called 'potential visions':

"I think there are a couple of potential visions out there. There's an American vision, a European vision, a Chinese vision, an Indian vision, there's an Islamic State vision... There are a bunch of visions that are competing."

He then spoke about the US and China (which he said was going to shape the planet) as two superpowers, whereas the role of a country like India is to 'balance these two forces'.

"India has a strategic relationship with the US and India has a very deep set of ideas that we share with them, democracy, freedom, etc. But India can't ignore the fact that China is growing extremely fast and is going to shape the planet. So to me, India's role is to balance these two forces, much like Europe's.

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Grouping India with Europe in this 'balancing' framework, Rahul Gandhi said that India was suited to it because of 'our design':

"I think the worst thing that could happen is that the Chinese and the US get into a conflict. That would be absolutely the worst thing for the whole planet. I think the Europeans and the Indians because of our design, are very well placed to make sure that that conflict doesn't happen."

He spoke alluded to his overarching narrative regarding 'conquering hate with love', which was made in the context of attacking the Modi government and the BJP, and attempted to apply it to his geopolitical paradigm for India:

"From an Indian perspective, there are certain values, such as non-violence, like compassion, like listening, that are likely to get more important in the 21st century. You could get away in the 20th century by not listening to people by using massive amounts of force against people, you can't do it now because they'll find a way of getting to you. There are certain values India brings to the table and many of them are unique, they were espoused by Mahatma Gandhi... they spread to South Africa, to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King."

"But I think India's role and Europe's role could be in balancing the narrative."

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The question that followed, posed by a US journalist, encapsulated the reaction to what Rahul Gandhi had just said:

"(QUESTION:)In the US, there's been a big shift in talking about the Asia-Pacific to the Indo-Asia-Pacific. Clearly the wager that the Trump administration and the US security circles are making is that India is willing, able and prepared to work with the US in Asia, but as per your answer, it sounds like India views itself more as an honest broker or a balancer between the US and China... so is India going to go between the two or is it going to play a more active role with US, Australia, Japan, and others to uphold the liberal order in Asia?

Rahul Gandhi, clearly having understood the ramifications of the question, made to answer immediately, saying:

"Frankly, India is going to do what's in its self-interest."

His next statement, however, saw him almost contradict himself: "But India has a relationship with the US and shares certain values. So in a sense, we're closer to the US than we are to the Chinese, but the Chinese and the US are both major players on the planet but India, frankly, sees itself as...(*a long almost inflexion point*) similar. I mean, this might... I mean we don't... actually... to be blunt with you... someone asked an Indian leader do you lean left or right, and she responded, no, we stand straight."

He finally concluded: "So I think that's really the answer... what is in India's interest, India will do, but we have a very good friendship with the United States."