Rahul's U.S. trip aims to win friends, influence people

Congress wants to project party vice-president as an influential liberal voice in the world

Berkeley: Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi delivering a speech at Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley, California on Monday. PTI Photo(PTI9_12_2017_000038B)

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s current trip to the United States, unlike his previous sojourns abroad, is about winning friends and influencing people — and not just among the Indian diaspora. For it takes in interactions with students at Berkeley and Princeton, a visit to the Silicon Valley, and speaking engagements with congressional leaders and think tanks in Washington.

Organised by the Chicago-based Sam Pitroda, head of the Overseas Congress Department, since June this year, the trip is intended to introduce Mr. Gandhi to an international audience as a potential Indian Prime Minister as well as respond to growing disquiet abroad — reflected in newspapers there — about the growing climate of intolerance and consequent violence in India.

Larger message

Mr. Pitroda and former Union Ministers, Shashi Tharoor and Milind Deora, are accompanying Mr. Gandhi — another former Union Minister, Manish Tewari, will join them in Washington.

The larger message the Congress hopes to send out through this trip is that Mr. Gandhi’s is an influential liberal voice in the world at a time of growing authoritarian regimes.

“There is a convergence of liberal forces around the world, whether they are social democrats or liberal academic institutions, all pushing back against right-wing authoritarian forces. This is seen in the discourse in these circles as much in the U.S., as in India or Turkey,” Mr. Tewari told

The Hindu , emphasising that Mr. Gandhi’s Berkeley speech saw him repeatedly referring to himself as a “liberal.”

‘One-sided news’

For the last three years, party general secretary B.K. Hariprasad stressed, news of India going abroad had been “one-sided”: “Rahulji is the liberal face of India: he not only spoke his mind at Berkeley — he also answered questions, something the Prime Minister never does, at home or abroad.”

Adverse impact

There is criticism in sections of the Congress that Mr. Gandhi is abroad when elections to Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are imminent, but there is also approbation, a sense that this trip will help connect Mr. Gandhi with Indians abroad, many of whom actively promote the BJP abroad and at home.

Kishore Chandra Deo, who heads the Adivasi Congress, said, “Mob lynchings, murders of liberals, stifling of dissent, attacks on the press, all under Prime Minister Modi, have made an adverse impact abroad, with even the U.N. Human Rights Commission taking note of these happenings. Mr. Modi came through a democratic process but he’s behaving like a despot. This has to be fought everywhere, both at home and abroad.”

This fight back has upset the BJP, Mr. Deo said: “Otherwise, what explains the outburst from so many BJP ministers? Congress workers may feel Rahul should be here campaigning for the elections — but why should it cause discomfort to the BJP?”