Bengaluru:
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is today addressed the students at Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru.
Here are the highlights- I did a little research before I came here, so I went to Wikipedia like everyone does these days
- I looked up Wikipedia, I found to my surprise that three brilliant women that I know, come from this institution
- I was very impressed with the alumni list. So I called Margaret Alva ji, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw ji & Nirupama Rao ji
- When I spoke to iran Mazumdar-Shaw ji, she said she wouldn't have become head of Biocon if this institution hadn't given her the self belief
- I could have never achieved what I did without the school. It gave me self-belief.
- Today many avenues have opened and she inspired you to follow your dream and get ahead in life
- I realised that essentially what this institute does is that it gives you knowledge but it also preaches tolerance
- If you want to achieve anything in life, you have to listen to people around you. You have to learn, appreciate and carry them around you
- This institution, it gives you knowledge but also gives you tolerance
- This institution is about conversation. I'm not coming here to tell you what to think, I'm coming here to listen to what you have to say
- When I first came into politics, I was convinced in my mind that solution to India's problems were simple. The only thing that had to be done was to implement them
- Some years back, about 10 years ago, we started a SHG - The idea of connecting women to banks and finance, allowing them to use finance to become entrepreneurs
- I went to Andhra Pradesh and was impressed by it. You know how UP is, everyone told us that it can happen in AP, not in Uttar Pradesh
- Today it is the largest SHG for women in Uttar Pradesh 1.5 million women are a part of it. Most of these women came from below poverty line.
- Narrates a tale of a woman in Amethi
- She said I had become so small that I had forgotten that I exist
- If anyone came home and asked if anyone was home, I used to keep quiet
- My husband would drink alcohol. He would come home from work and then beat me up everyday
- One day he got very angry and he picked up my one and half year old child.
- It was not only society but it was me, she said. I looked at her and said how can you say that, she said because I had the power to stop him and I didn't. Today I realise that nobody can do anything to me
- This for me was a very powerful lesson
- Women do not have the place they deserve. They are mistreated and made uncomfortable
- Society decides someone is pretty, thin, small. For me, all of you are beautiful
- Conversation is important, out of conversation comes out a refined perspective
- High-level Inter-Ministerial Central Team deputed for assessment of situation in wake of recent floods following heavy rains in Tamil Nadu.
- How can one person have all the answers? I want you all to be part of decision making in the country
- In the Central Govt today I can say with certainty that there is only one person taking all the decisions
- But what I want is for everyone to have a dialogue, I want all of you to be able to be in Vidhan Sabha and have a dialogue
- A conversation should be started with Irom Sharmila, we'll do it: Rahul Gandhi when asked why Cong doesnt initiate conversation with Sharmila
- A member of Govt does not have the decency to go there and say why are you protesting
- After that you can say I don't agree with you, you are wrong, but at least start a conversation
- Prime Minister mentioned that he would produce two crore jobs. Its perfectly ok if you are focusing on large business and providing jobs
- India will only succeed if the economy grows and take the benefits to poor people
- Most of the democratic dividend is poor. Most of the young are not rich
- They are slashing education, health care expenditure and by the way there are no jobs
- All the government is doing right now is giving contracts to large business people, that too very few of them
- It's actually much worse that suit boot ki Sarkar, it is 5-6 suit boot ki Sarkar
- The central idea of the PM which I contest is that he believes that country can be run through the PMO
- I have seen India for too long to believe that one person can change the lives of 1.3 billion people
- Suit boot is failing because there are no jobs, economy is in doldrums and you don't have any money in education and healthcare
- We have very strong views on the Land Bill. Land is the single biggest source of corruption in the country
- We very strongly believe in a Goods and Services Tax Bill, but one which has a cap on tax, not the one in which there is an unlimited amount of tax on the people of India
- All our senior leaders were asked to get out of the House. We want to be constructive. We think GST is important and are more than important to carry that conversation.
- The only way to work is to involve the poor people, it is to bring them into the conversation
- Congress party brought the GST bill, we are supporting the Bill
- For the last three years the BJP was opposing the Bill. Its very nice of them to say that we are blocking it which they did for 3 years
- We want a cap on the tax that can be charged to protect you. We don't want a situation where there is no cap
- The BJP's approach on the Land Bill was to shut us out
- When Mr Kharge used to speak, they used to switch off the mic. If the government wants to pass GST they have to accept that Congress sits in parliament, 20 per cent of the vote and has a view
- We want to make sure that there is a cap on the tax for you. Do we want a GST are we ready on GST, ready to talk on GST
- Absolutely we are ready to have that conversation
- There was certain amount of fatigue in the Congress, there were some things we did wrong. We lost the election
- Clean your country is a strategic national programme. Swachh Bharat isn't working. Make in India isn't working
- I don't clearly see a vision that the BJP is projecting. Congress has to come up with a potential vision for the people of India
- In Bihar it is generally accepted that Nitish Kumar is an honest leader. We supported him.
- Lalu Yadav ji is not in the government. His sons have said zero tolerance to corruption
- If you look at what we did with regard to corruption. RTI is the single biggest tool against corruption
- In Rajasthan, the CM and her son have been given 12 crore, 40 people have been murdered in Vyapam scam
- The fact that BJP is corrupt is 100 per cent correct, BJP is not doing much to remove corruption
- Nitish Kumar has a decent record on corruption. Our thinking on Bihar was that BJP needs to be stopped. Now Nitish Kumar is Chief Minister. It is our responsibility that there is no corruption
- We tried to support the Northeast region and give them special status
BJP has removed that status - We tried to build infrastructure, but there is a lot of corruption at the local level
- There are a lot of complexities that are not there in the rest of the country
- I was quite surprised when the PM announced the Naga Accord. PM called up Congress President to inform her
- Congress President spoke to her three Chief Ministers about the pact, they said they have no knowledge
- When they spoke to Nagaland Chief Minister, he also didn't know anything about it.
- Then we called up Home Minister, they also didn't know