Rahul Gandhi: After Manmohan Singh criticised health of economy, PM Modi took lessons from him

NEW DELHI: Seeking to draw political advantage from former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with successor Narendra Modi on Wednesday, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday described the conversation as a “paathshala” for Modi on how to run the country’s economy.

“Unhone (PM) kaha mujhe kuch samajh nahin aa raha, aap samjhaaiye (He said that he can’t understand what’s happening, so please explain to me),” said Rahul while taking a dig at PM Modi in his brief address at the two-day convention of the National Students Union of India (NSUI).

“After Manmohan ji said that the economy is going down, the prime minister invited him and took an hour-long paathshala (lesson). Perhaps he wanted to understand how to run India’s economy.”

‘ RSS Meddling in HRD Min’

The meeting, which according to Singh’s office took place at Modi’s request, had set tongues wagging with different versions doing the rounds through the day. So, in this backdrop, Rahul Gandhi’s remarks seemed an attempt to put to rest speculation about the meeting. Gandhi appeared to be indicating that Singh had delivered a strong message to the PM on the lines of what he had spoken on Wednesday morning at the same convention.

Further, taking off from his “suitboot” remark, he took a swipe at the PM for running a one-man show that does not celebrate diversity of views within the government.

“One man knows it all. If you ask on farmer issues, only one man knows. Education, only one man knows and even clothes, one man knows.” He then went on to accuse the PM of letting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) meddle in the HRD ministry to the detriment of progressive voices. “RSS is fully involved in the Human Resource Department ministry.

Senior scientists would give their views to IITs but now they are saying we don’t want to,” claimed Gandhi while taking another shot at PM’s foreign trips, saying Modi had no time to visit farmers and labourers.

The BJP, however, dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s charges as an effort to ape Arvind Kejriwal. “The problem with him and the first family of the Congress is that it is not able to digest its defeat. Rahul is now trying to copy Arvind Kejriwal and in the process he has come out as one who is anti-growth and anti-development,” BJP Secretary Srikant Sharma told ET.

In trying to labour the point on how Congress was different, the party vicepresident conceded that it took him 10 years to figure out why there can never be order in the Congress. “We allow all views to be heard and then try to find a compromise. It’s in our DNA to let everyone have a say. This is not the case with the BJP and RSS.”

Underlining this ideological divide, he said the RSS uses “discipline as a tool to murder individuality”. And this, according to him, was the reason that they are unwilling to change with time. “They believe in a world thousand years ago and that it will remain the same for another thousand years. Nothing will change.”

In a RSS shakha, he added, they make you stand in a line and “if someone dare flout that rule, they hit them with a laathi… the way they used to kill in Germany that’s how they do it here now. It’s this ideology that’s running the country.” To this, Sharma said: “To understand the RSS, he will have to go to its shakhas.”