“There is nothing to wait for,” Sam Pitroda on when Rahul will be Congress president

Combining a social agenda for harmony and an economic agenda that is focussed on job creation is his vision for India, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday. Interacting with students and faculty at the Princeton University, Mr. Gandhi, who is on a two-week tour of the U.S, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politics was achieving neither and people are turning angry. “The anger is building up in India right now. We can sense it. So to me, the challenge is how to solve the problem in a democratic environment,” Mr. Gandhi said.

The Congress Vice-President did not specifically respond to a question on his future role in the party amid speculation that he would be taking over as president, succeeding his mother Sonia Gandhi within weeks. Mr. Gandhi’s close associate Sam Pitroda, the U.S based development thinker who is credited with pioneering India’s telecom growth, said he should take charge immediately. “He is ready, and there is nothing to wait for. My view is that he must take charge immediately. We have 18 months to the next general election, and he can make a difference,” Mr. Pitroda said. Mr. Gandhi’s U.S events are being organized by Mr. Pitroda. The Congress leader is scheduled to address a gathering of the Indian-American community in New York on Wednesday.

Agrees UPA too could not do it

In a candid self-reflection, Mr. Gandhi said the UPA governments from 2004 to 2014 also could not achieve the required numbers of jobs that the growing population of India needs. He said anxiety around jobs and economic insecurity led to the rise of politicians such as Mr. Modi and Donald Trump in America. “Frankly, the Congress party was unable to do it. But Modi is also unable to do it. It is a deeper problem, so we have to first accept it as a problem and then we have to unite at solving it. Right now, nobody is willing to accept it,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding that the PM was trying to deflect attention from the core question of jobs.

The Congress leader said his party’s biggest achievement has been in creating a vision of India that everyone in the country could share. These days, many groups, such as tribals, some States that are opposed to a particular vision of India, and minorities are feeling left out of the vision that Prime Minister Modi is representing, the Congress leader has said. “If you fiddle with the structure of harmony, you will get things that you don’t want happening,” he said, adding that if the country alienated its own people, it could open up space for mischief by enemies.

‘Cooperation and competition with China’

Responding to a question on India and China, Mr. Gandhi said it was a relationship that involves cooperation and competition and India must must manage both well to protect its own interests. “…these two countries do is going to fundamentally reshape the world. …They have chosen their path. We have chosen ours….And China has a particular vision of the world. It’s very clear. And from their perspective it’s a very powerful vision..Does India have a similar vision? What does that vision look like? How much cooperation is going to be between us and them?,” Mr. Gandhi said.

The Congress leader has said there is a vast potential for expanding India-U.S cooperation in dealing with India’s problems in development and job creation. While improving the ties with the U.S, the Congress has always ensured that India’s relationships with other countries — he named China, Russia and Iran — were also maintained. “We have to keep the balance,” said Mr. Gandhi.