Taking a jibe at the NDA-led Centre over demonetisation and GST reforms, Gandhi said, “…the Government of India brought two policies – first, the demonetisation of our currency, which essentially destroyed small and medium businesses and allowed very large monopolies to control a big section of our economy; and second, GST, which was again designed to harm medium and small businesses. We believe that supporting these small businesses is the way forward for entrepreneurship, and that’s the difference between us and those in power who believe that a few monopolies should control the economy.”

Gandhi spoke on the economy, health care AI, geopolitics among others and drew parallels between India and China. He said, “Most of the people, for example, who are creating polarisation in the US with Mr Trump are those who lost their jobs because of manufacturing. China has demonstrated to the world how you can manage production in a non-democratic setup, but we cannot do that; we are a democratic setup. The challenge is whether we can develop manufacturing like China but within a democratic setup.”

“Chinese dominate production data, and in the Western world and in India, they dominate consumption data. A lot of people say that AI will revolutionise things, but the power will be in the hands of those who control the data. In our part of the world, it’s America that controls the data through its big tech companies like Google and WhatsApp…” he said.

“…In a country like India, simply privatising healthcare and education doesn’t work. We have tried it, but it didn’t work. At least my party and I believe in solid government involvement in these sectors. Our top universities are public sector universities. While many states in India have not done well in primary education, higher education has been a big success,” he further said.

Gandhi’s remarks did not go down well with the BJP whose leaders have repeatedly accused him of being anti-national over his remarks abroad.

Accusing Gandhi of abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “…in Bogota, Colombia, Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi stated that there is no democracy in India and people don’t have the freedom to speak. Rahul Gandhi abuses PM Modi, the development of the nation, the most. ..If you go abroad and insult India, the public will not vote for you and you will not win the seats that you won this time. Now you’re praising China, saying that India can’t become a major global power, but China can lead the world…Today, India is the world’s fourth-largest economy and is on its way to becoming the third. Your love for China is evident, and you never miss an opportunity to insult India. We strongly condemn this…”

With PTI inputs