Oppn backs India's position on Russia-Ukraine: Rahul Gandhi (Lead)

Brussels, Sep 8 (IANS) Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who is currently on a visit to Europe, said here on Friday that the party's stand on Article 370 was very clear and it also wants to ensure that every voice in the country is heard, with people being allowed to express themselves freely.

He also backed the Indian government stand of the Russia and Ukraine war and said the opposition by and large would agree with the government position.

Addressing a press conference at the Press Club in the Belgian capital, Rahul Gandhi said: "Our position on Article 370 is very clear. It's in a resolution passed in the CWC. We are for ensuring that every single person in our country has a voice, and is allowed to express themselves. We feel very strongly that Kashmir should develop, Kashmir should progress, and there should be peace in Kashmir."

He was responding to a question about Article 370 and restrictions imposed on opposition leaders in the union territory in 2019.

When asked about the India's relationship with Russia and the US, the senior Congress leader said: "I mean, India of course has a relationship with Russia and India has a relationship with the US. India is a large country and it will have relationship with many countries. That is a normal thing and India has every right to have relationship with whoever it wants."

He said that there were "serious issues about the type of actions that are being taken in with regard to institution and democracy."

"There is a sense that there are underlined issues."

When asked about the opposition's point of view of the Russia-Ukraine war, Rahul Gandhi said: "I think the opposition by and large would agree with the government position. We have a relationship with Russia. And I don't think the opposition will have a different view of what the government is currently proposing."

He also said that he has been travelling abroad to meet different people both from Europe and from the Indian diaspora and he has been doing it regularly now.

"We have gone to the US and UK and now we have come to the European Union to get a sense of what is happening here and back home.

"It's more of a conversation than a message. I am no one to come and give a message to Europeans. It's an exchange of ideas what is going on in India and what is going on here. The type of cooperation we can do. It’s more of a conversation.

"We discussed with the parliamentarians across the board, the relationship between India and Europe and the change in the globe and transition into a new sort of energy paradigm and new mobility paradigm. That was very fruitful.

"We were giving them a sense of the type of challenges India is facing, economic challenges, other challenges. The general sort of attack on the democratic institutions that was discussed," Rahul Gandhi added.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that there was an attempt to change the future of the country.

"There is an increase in discrimination and violence in India and there is full scale assault in India. There is an alternative vision that is the BJP's vision. They believe power should be centralised, wealth needs to be concentrated and the conversation between the people of India should be suppressed," he said.

The Congress leader said for him it was a battle between two visions, which he termed as Mahatma Gandhi's vision and Nathuram Godse's vision.

He also asserted that there is something really wrong with India’s economic model and it’s not accepted as the unemployment and inflation is on rise. 

Discussing what the youths told him during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress leader said they told me three things unemployment, huge increase in the level of poverty and completely skewed income distribution so few people getting wealthy and bulk of people pushed into poverty and those were the three things repeatedly they told me.

“The fact of the matter is that the India is the highest unemployment in last 40 years. Something is really wrong with our economic model and it’s not accepted. But I don’t think that the current path we are on is sustainable in anyway. There will be a certainly consequences and backlash from this model,” he said.

To another question, the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Wayanad said: "I don't think, the G20 is an important conversation and it is a good thing that India is hosting. Of course there are issues in India that we raise. I think framing that are they giving them free passage is not exactly correct."

Rahul Gandhi arrived in Brussels on September 6 and he will visiting some other nations like France, the Netherlands and Norway till September 11 and participate in several interactive programmes and also meet businessmen and diaspora.