It was a hot, May morning when the Congress Vice President invited us for a chat. We scrambled. Photo Editor Pramod Pushkarna had just returned from his morning walk. Editorial colleague Vishwadeepak, a night bird, had just woken up. But we made it on time. At the appointed hour Rahul Gandhi walked in dressed in a casual off white shirt and blue jeans, followed by two playful canine companions, who sat down quietly at his feet as we began the conversation. They would look up every now and then, demanding a pat or a light touch from him. He exuded warmth and playfulness, a smile lighting up his face occasionally. But for the most duration he was thoughtful, replying to questions without hesitation and with a bluntness that caught us by surprise. What did he think of India and its challenges 70 years after Independence?





Here are replies to some of the questions we put to him.





What in your view are the big challenges facing the country today?

The biggest challenge is dangerously clear: not enough jobs are being created. Today, China has become the most efficient job producer in the world—over 12 million new jobs each year for the last five years. Neither the West nor India has developed a response to this challenge. Young people are asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi what happened to his promise – his countless promises, almost every second sentence of the Prime Minister is a feverish promise – of creating two crore jobs a year? Yet all the PM has given India is the highest level of unemployment we’ve faced in the last five years. One or two lakh jobs per year, is simply not enough to meet the aspirations of our people.





Doesn’t jobless growth put us at some kind of risk of social unrest as we are witnessing?

Not some kind of risk, it puts us in a very alarming state of vulnerability. In the last 40-50 years, both India and China have witnessed a massive population shift from rural to urban areas.





People from villages have been migrating in large numbers to towns and big cities, hoping for a better life and better job opportunities. This transition is a terrifying experience because once people arrive in the city, they find that they have no access to jobs, education or healthcare.





They have left their village behind; their social groups, solidarity networks and friendships are gone. They have no way of going back because their home and their agriculture have been destroyed in order to pave their way to the city. All that was familiar to them is lost. Imagine the tremendous anxiety and fear that these internal migrants face – it’s shattering.





The ideology that drives PM Modi, the RSS and BJP uses this anxiety and insecurity to spread anger and hatred. They convert this anxiety into hatred against Muslims, Dalits, other minorities and marginalised people forcing two people – brothers – with common interests and dreams to go into combat with each other. But anger and hatred will not convert into jobs, or solutions. Once this engine of hatred starts, you cannot control it.





The PM has clearly demonstrated that he is not interested in halting this hatred, rather he feeds off it. In his speeches, he tells the people that India was the greatest country 5,000 years ago. With great vigour he speaks of mythical flying chariots, ancient plastic surgery and genetic science. Our PM repeats again and again that the future is in the past. But you cannot build a nation on memory alone. We need imagination to move forward. Where is the imagination for India now? I see neither a vision nor compassion anywhere in this present government.