Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while speaking at the Bhagidari Nyay Sammelan in New Delhi on Friday, remarked that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “all show” and “no substance.” He argued that the media and the public have given the Prime Minister “too much importance.”
During his address, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha asked the gathering to reflect on what they believed was the greatest challenge in politics. Responding to someone in the audience, he said, “You know what is the biggest problem in politics. No, Narendra Modi is not a big problem.”
Sharing his own encounters with the Prime Minister, the Rae Bareli MP explained that meeting Modi two or three times shaped his view. “I am telling you, you have given him too much importance; he is not a problem. Earlier, I had not met him, but now I have met him 2-3 times. Now I understand there is nothing – he is all show, no substance. You have not met him, I have,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi acknowledges past mistake
Reflecting on his political journey since 2004, Gandhi admitted to a personal shortcoming regarding the Other Backward Classes. “I have been in politics since 2004, it has been 21 years…When I look back, I can see that I made a mistake. I didn’t protect the OBCs like I should have,” he said.
He explained that his failure stemmed from a lack of deeper understanding of the community’s struggles and history. Had he grasped these issues earlier, he said, he would have pushed for a caste census long ago. “It was because I could not understand your issues in depth at that time…My regret is that if I had known about your (OBC) history, about your issues, even a little more, I would have conducted a Caste Census right at that time. It is a mistake I made. It is not the Congress party’s mistake; it is my mistake. I am going to rectify that mistake,” he told the audience.
Gandhi concluded by reaffirming his commitment to conducting a caste census, describing it as an “X-ray of the population” in Congress-ruled states.
