"Fighting an ideological battle," said Rahul Gandhi in London
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that he does not have "visions" of becoming next the prime minister. While interacting with journalists in London, Mr Gandhi underscored that he only sees himself as the one who is "fighting an ideological battle".
"I don't have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come in me after 2014. I realised that there's a risk to the Indian state, to the Indian way of doing things and I'm defending that. I just get up in morning think of how do I defend the Indian institutional structure and how do I make sure that the country I love works together," said Mr Gandhi.
Earlier in May this year, the Congress chief had said "why not" in reply to a question on whether he would like to become the prime minister if Congress emerges as the single largest party, in the 2019 parliamentary elections.
On being asked about leadership in 2019, Mr Gandhi said "Conversations (with the Opposition parties) on leadership are going to happen after the elections, after we have pushed the BJP and the RSS back." He targeted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS saying that the "emphasis is... and there is a consensus among pretty much all leaders of the Opposition that the RSS is threatening the institutional order of India... they are systematically attacking organisations, and putting their people into them."
Continuing his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, Mr Gandhi questioned Prime Minister's silence on the Unnao rape case and fugitives Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. He claimed PM Modi was insulting every citizen of the country by saying that India did not see any development before he came to power.
"When Prime Minister Modi says nothing happened before he became a Prime Minister, he insults every Indian's forefathers who toiled hard to build this country. Today in India, people are discriminated against on the basis of their caste and religion. Marginalised are betrayed while people like Anil Ambani benefit. While China creates 50,000 jobs in a day, India creates only 450 jobs," he added.