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Dnyanesh Jathar
Dnyanesh Jathar

INTERVIEW

Rahul’s US visit was a turning point for the Congress

Milind Deora, Congress leader

  • We proved that the US is not exclusive domain of one individual or a party. Their affinity is for Indian people.

How did the idea of Rahul Gandhi’s US visit originate?

I had addressed the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. It is the epicentre of liberal and progressive thought and politics. When I had gone there I realised that Pandit Nehru had addressed Berkeley in 1949. So I suggested to Rahulji to plan a US trip and address Berkeley. I also suggested that he should visit Silicon Valley to meet tech entrepreneurs, Los Angeles to meet entertainment professionals, and Washington, DC to interact with policymakers, think tanks and political class. That is how it began.

How did you plan the schedule of this visit?

In Silicon Valley we visited companies like Tesla and Sun Power. We had meetings, lunch and dinner with leading tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists like Sanjay Subedar. In Los Angeles, too, we had meetings with entertainment entrepreneurs over lunch and dinner, and we visited Berggruen Institute [a think tank]. In Washington, DC, I tapped into my old family connections. My father [the late Murli Deora] had excellent relationship with a number of senators, congressmen and governors in DC. So we met all these people and had a free exchange of ideas and thoughts. Then in New York, we addressed the Indian community.

What was the objective of this visit?

41-Milind-Deora Milind Deora

The objective was to meet private and public sector, understand their concerns, aspirations and views on India, give them a clear understanding of what the Congress party stands for in terms of social, economic and foreign policies. All the people we met were excited about our interaction as they firmly believed in Indo-US relationship. They knew very well that how it blossomed during the tenure of prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, so they understood what is the Congress’s contribution to this relationship.

Some of the people we met had concerns about social and economic issues—issues like communal harmony, lynchings. The Democrats spoke to us about the challenges posed by Trump’s presidency.

We also met a former treasury secretary who told us that he had never heard of a bizarre policy like demonetisation. He said that in his job as treasury secretary he had met all sorts of leaders from African countries which we might call banana republics, but had never come across a measure like demonetisation to reduce dependence on cash. He said the intention was good but you could not force it down, such a measure was disruptive and caused huge loss to economy, rather you should incentivise it if you wanted to reduce dependence on cash. You can toy with aggressive incentives but that, too, is dangerous. You should do it habitually and slowly.

It was a refreshing trip. It allowed us to assess challenges and opportunities before the Congress party through an unbiased and clean prism.

Did you expect the kind of response that came from the BJP?

I knew that the address at Berkeley would be important and keenly followed. But I certainly didn’t expect the way they reacted. We finished around six thirty or seven that day. After dinner, we were driving to Palo Alto when we came to know that BJP had launched an unprecedented attack by putting out so many ministers. Clearly they got rattled and ruffled. It was a case of sour grapes. They were trying to create non-issues.

What have you achieved by this visit?

We proved that the US is not exclusive domain of one individual or a party. Their affinity is for Indian people, not one particular party or government. I feel very happy that I was able to curate this visit for Rahul Gandhi. The way his views, thoughts and feelings were received in the US, it was not judged through the prism of the BJP’s social media machinery. Rather it was judged purely on merit of the argument through an unbiased and clean prism. This visit was a turning point for the party; it got a lot of traction. It established what is already known to us, that Rahul Gandhi has good ideas, good intentions and has the ability to implement them.

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