Says Congress has a tradition of welcoming members of the diaspora to work for the country

Congress has a tradition of welcoming members of the Indian diaspora to work for the country, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi told a community gathering on Wednesday, urging them to contribute to resolving the economic and social challenges before India.

Mr. Gandhi concluded his two-week tour of the United States with a speech in which he recalled the contributions made to India, by people who had gone abroad, using the Congress platform. The Congress leader reiterated the theme of his tour — social harmony and job creation in India — in his concluding speech also, but the emphasis was on how people of Indian origin abroad could contribute to it. “You need to get involved. You have tremendous knowledge, you have tremendous understanding, you work in different fields. I invite you to come and work with the Congress party and discuss the vision going forward. We want to take your help,” Mr. Gandhi said, citing the examples of Sam Pitroda, U.S.-based telecom expert who pioneered the telecom revolution in India and Verghese Kurien, who returned from the U.S and pioneered what came to be known as the White Revolution in India’s dairy sector. Mr. Gandhi said his party had the vision to give the space and opportunity for many more such people.

Sangh Parivar influence on diaspora

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar have significant influence among the Indian-American community and the diaspora in general, and Mr. Gandhi’s American tour was aimed both at projecting his leadership on a global stage and mobilising Indian-Americans in support of his politics back home. Mr. Pitroda, Mr. Gandhi’s close associate who is in charge of the Indian Overseas Congress, said the organization’s footprint was expected to expand to 30 countries from the present 18. Mr. Gandhi said he would visit America, whenever he is asked to, and remain in touch with the community. The event organized in a hotel in Times Square was not widely publicized, and was attended by around 2000 people mostly from New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

The Congress leader said the “original Congress movement was an NRI movement,” citing how Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, B. R Ambedkar, Maulana Azad, and Sardar Vallabhai Patel were all leaders who “went to the outside world, saw the outside world, returned to India and used some the ideas they got and transformed India.”

Mr. Gandhi said, during his interactions with several groups around the U.S. over the last two weeks, contributions of Indian-Americans to America and India made him proud, but he constantly faced questions about social tensions in India. “Many, many people in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party asked me what is going on in your country? We always believed that your country worked together, we always believed your country was peaceful. What is going on in your country?” Mr. Gandhi quoted his American interlocutors asking him.

“India’s reputation very important”

“And that is something we have to fight. India’s reputation in the world is very important,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding that India’s multi-religious, secular democracy is an example for the entire world.

“Many countries in a violent world are looking to India and saying maybe, India has the answer to the 21st century. Maybe India has the answer for peaceful coexistence in the 21st century. So, we cannot afford to lose our most powerful asset. Our most important asset is that 1.3 billion people lived happily, non-violently, peacefully and the world respected us for that. This is something that as Congress people, every single one of us has to defend. India is a country that belongs to its entire people,” he said.