Listen to people: Rahul

Vice president of Indian Congress Rahul Gandhi has flayed the BJP-led Indian government over its perceived “intolerance” and advised it to not learn the “wrong lessons” from Pakistan.

Participating in the Lok Sabha discussion on intolerance in the country, Rahul said India has been successful because people have had the “space to talk” and have been allowed to be part of every conversation. Mahatma Gandhi gave voice to the people.

“They (Pakistan) have failed because their leaders crush the voices that are inconvenient to them”.

He said that people like Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had better things to do than manufacture protests against the government. They are the people of India. “Yet when FTII students with superb skills go on strike because a mediocre man is placed in a top institution, the government simply tries to intimidate them”, Gandhi said.

“In Gujarat, Patidars are protesting and the govt’s response is to file 20,000 FIRs against them for sedition”, he said. “Yet our PM allows this man to continue as minister as if nothing has happened”. “The prime minister is unable to see this contradiction”, said Rahul.

“Will the prime minister start to listen to the voice of our people?” “Arun Shourie used to praise Modi earlier, but when he criticised him, your trollers attacked him on Twitter”, he said.

He accused Singh of challenging the constitution with his remarks on the incident involving the killing of two Dalit children in Haryana.

Hitting hard at government’s dismissal of the protests by writers and artistes as “manufactured revolt”, Gandhi lamented “the government did not bother to speak to them”. He said Modi had remained silent when Shakshi Maharaj called Godse a patriot.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Wednesday lashed out at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for questioning his absence from Parliament. Why would they manufacture it Jaitley ji?

“Arun Jaitleyji – this is not a dream like your “Make in India” program”.

Taking a dig at some BJP leaders over the Aamir Khan issue, he said while the PM talked about economic growth and progress, “at the same time his colleagues are talking about sending Bollywood stars to Pakistan”. “The Prime Minister has nothing to say about it”.

Mahajan told Kharge that Home Minister Rajnath Singh had given a detailed reply yesterday, adding that Congress members were not in the House during the speech, apparently referring to their walkout yesterday.