Rahul Gandhi On Dais, Congress' Sam Pitroda Says "He Is No Pappu"

Congress leader Sam Pitroda, while addressing the Indian community in Texas, said that his party leader Rahul Gandhi has a vision contrary to what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promotes and that he is not a "Pappu".

"He (Rahul Gandhi) has a vision contrary to what BJP promotes by spending crores of rupees. I must tell you, he is no Pappu. He is highly educated, well-read, a strategist with deep thinking on any subject and sometimes it is not very easy to understand him," Mr Pitroda said.

Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, Mr Pitroda said that Gandhian thoughts, inclusion and diversity were at the core of his (Pitroda's) learning.

"Going to school in the early fifties, Gandhian thoughts were the core of our learning. Inclusion and diversity were not just words, this is what we lived by, and when I begin to see changes in our society that attack the basic fabric, I worry about it. So the idea is to make sure that we respect our people irrespective of their race, religion, language, or state. We create the same opportunities for everybody we provide dignity to labour and these are the issues that Rahul Gandhi is championing and that makes me very happy," he said.

Mr Pitroda said that Rahul Gandhi's agenda is to celebrate diversity.

"Rahul Gandhi has a different agenda which is more focused on something that we have been trying to address for a long time but have not been able to quite address well and that is inclusion, celebration of diversity..," he said.

Mr Pitroda explained that democracy is not that simple and cannot be taken for granted.

"Democracy is not that simple... Democracy requires work from a large number of people like us. We can't take it for granted because there are people who are focused on hijacking democracy. We have seen it in many countries... At the time of independence, there was this fervor about the independence movement and leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad, Sardar Patel, and Subhash Chandra Bose were very clear about the kind of nation they wanted to build. Everyone understood what freedom meant and the opportunities free India would create... I want you to join the Indian Overseas Congress, improve the quality of our activities, and the quantity of our members, and bring in a more diverse group of people," he said.

Mr Pitroda said, "When Rahul Gandhi was here last time visiting us at a major meeting in New York, there was a demand for him to come to Dallas and he promised them that during my next trip, I will come to Dallas and he is keeping his promise. He walks the talk and I am delighted that from his busy schedule, he could take three days off to come visit us where he is spending a day here and two days in Washington DC."

Talking about IOC, he said, "Indian Overseas Congress is part of the Indian National Congress looking after all of the global party initiatives. We are in 32 countries and our job is to get people to understand what our party stands for, and what we believe in, and align forces of all kinds of democratic initiatives. We have been at this for a while now we are in 32 countries and our job is to increase our membership, improve our events and activities, and get more people working towards protecting our democracy."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)