Election 2019: India Needs A Paradigm Shift In Economic Model, Says Rahul Gandhi
Congress President Rahul Gandhi speaks to BloombergQuint’s Raghav Bahl and Sanjay Pugalia about elections 2019 and more.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
India Needs A Paradigm Shift In Economic Policy, Says Rahul Gandhi
India needs a paradigm shift to jump start economic growth and address the prevalent unemployment, Gandhi said.
"We ran an economic financial model in the 90s. It worked in the 90s. We didn’t run a new model later, we tweaked that model in 2004 and that ran well in 2012 after which it collapsed,” he said, speaking about welfare economics and policies.
We understand that the same model will not work anymore.Rahul Gandhi, President, Congress
The challenge is the massive young population and the inability to create jobs for them, he said. “The first aim is to send the message to poor people that, in the 21st century India will not accept poverty and it will wipe it out. Second is, to jump-start the economy and bring the economy to the point of solid growth.”
That is what the NYAY scheme proposes to do, he added.
What Modi is proposing is to run the 2004 model again, Gandhi said. Instead what it needs is a shift which will not be whimsical like making toilets or adding Rs 15 lakh in accounts, he added.
“It will be a conversation with all stakeholders - citizens, farmers, business owners - on what are the big changes India needs.”
Rahul Gandhi Vs Narendra Modi
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is campaigning in Himachal Pradesh, as the final phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 nears. Voting has concluded on 484 seats across the country, and voters in final 59 seats will cast their ballot on Sunday, May 19.
In his campaign rallies over the last six weeks, Gandhi has headlined the Congress’ ‘NYAY’ minimum income guarantee proposal, and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s policies on agriculture, defence procurement, the Goods and Services Tax and the 2016 decision to demonetise high-value currency notes.
While the Congress has been able to stitch up alliances with the DMK in Tamil Nadu, JD(S) in Karnataka, RJD in Bihar, NCP in Maharashtra and JMM in Jharkhand, Gandhi was unable to close tie-ups with the Left Front in West Bengal, the SP-BSP combine in Uttar Pradesh, and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. In the event of a hung Parliament, these parties may seek further compromise from the Congress president, as a pre-condition to any combined front to keep the BJP from power.
What BJP's Nitin Gadkari And Ram Madhav Had To Say
The crisis in India’s agriculture sector is of a magnitude that can’t be fixed in the five years that the Narendra Modi government has been in power, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told The Quint’s Editorial Director Sanjay Pugalia.
We have done a lot, but the problem is immense.Nitin Gadkari, Senior Leader, BJP
On the prospects of the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Gadkari asserted that Narendra Modi will be prime minister again, and that the BJP will exceed its 2014 tally of 282 seats.
Ram Madhav, the national general secretary of BJP said the party will require the support of allies to form India’s next government.
"If we get 271 seats on our own, we will be very happy," Madhav said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait on May 6.
"With NDA we will have a comfortable majority," he said referring to the National Democratic Alliance. The party will make up expected losses in the north Indian states it swept in 2014 with new gains in the country’s remote northeast, as well as in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha, Madhav said.
It will pursue pro-growth policies if it returns to power, he added, and has not shifted from a focus on economic reforms to one based on populist cash handouts, he added.
What Congress' P Chidambaram And Shashi Tharoor Had To Say
The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to drop 60 seats in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Punjab, and Bihar, according to Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Drawing on booth-level feedback from party voters, Chidambaram, in an interview with The Quint’s Sanjay Pugalia on May 9, said the Congress and its allies were ahead of the BJP and its allies in seats that were polled in the first four rounds of voting.
The Congress president has made it clear that where we can win in Uttar Pradesh, we will put in all our effort to defeat the BJP. Where we cannot win, we are going to help the gathbandhan.P Chidambaram, Leader, Indian National Congress
Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, is confident of winning his third straight election to return as a Member of Parliament. And he doesn’t expect the controversy over women being allowed to enter Sabarimala temple to have any impact.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s focus on the Sabarimala issue was the “wrong assumption” that people will vote for a “communal message”, Tharoor told BloombergQuint. “I don’t think the voters of Kerala give as much importance to Sabarimala as the BJP did.”
Election 2019: Ran 'Lean' Campaign; Did A 'Pretty Good Job', Says Rahul Gandhi
The Congress party has done a good job through this campaign season, leading up to election 2019, said Congress President Rahul Gandhi in an interview with BloombergQuint.
“We have massive financial constraints when compared to the BJP. But we have done a good job,” he said. Speaking about what could have been done differently, he said “There's always a better way of doing things.”
In Favour Of Decentralisation, Says Rahul Gandhi
- I'm absolutely in favour of decentralisation
- Need an ongoing economic conversation to implement ‘good’ ideas
- Implementation of Congress Party's ideas will happen through conversations
- Need to bring India, its institutions and public debate back to where it was a few years ago
- While working on deregulation, removing red tape, need to also make two-three strategic global bets
Rahul Gandhi On The Need To Focus On Healthcare
- One big powerful bet would be in completely rethinking what healthcare is in India
- India has capability to shape global healthcare, become the force that drives it
- Second big bet would be to rethink rail and air transport, movement of material in India
- Need to find ways to use Indian healthcare data better
India Must Stand With China And U.S. As Equals, Says Rahul Gandhi
Speaking about India’s much discussed foreign policy, Gandhi said that Prime MInister Narendra Modi took foreign policy away from the experts and ignored the strategic architecture of the country.
“Modi took away the strategic architecture and made it a circus,” he said. On the other hand, Congress has carried out multiple strategic actions without talking about them.
The challenges for India on the foreign front are clear - there's a superpower in the U.S., an emerging superpower in China and confusion in Europe, he said. “India must stand with China & U.S. as equals,” Gandhi said adding that it can't be subservient.
However, it must also realise where its strengths lie and where it is not strong.