‘Shunyata’ or selflessness must to keep India together: Rahul Gandhi  

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that “shunyata” (selflessness) in the leadership was crucial to keep India together. He further elaborated the idea of shunyata to self-introspection and self-critique.

The Congress leader’s comments came during an online interaction with the faculty and students of Brown University, moderated by professor Ashutosh Varshney. Brown is an Ivy League US university.

He said that Mahatma Gandhi’s journey towards Swaraj began with “shunyata” or the “attack on his self and introspection”.

“If you want to keep India together you have to do it. If there is no shunyata in the negotiation then it won’t work,” he said.

He contrasted this selflessness or shunyata with the egoism of the present BJP government led by PM Narendra Modi that refuses to enter into any dialogue or “negotiation” with those having a different opinion or views.

Modern India, emphasised Rahul Gandhi, is an ongoing negotiation among diverse cultures, languages, religions and ideas.

"To me, India is many different, diverse viewpoints...Modern India to me is essentially an ongoing negotiation between those ideas and cultures. Our founding fathers created an architecture of that negotiation through various institutions…What I see is a determined attack on these institutions," Rahul Gandhi said.

He pointed out that he opposes BJP and RSS because they don’t appreciate this diversity and its ongoing negotiation and intend to impose a unilateral ideology on the people.

“A group of say 20 people who have a different view of the Congress party. Do you think they can exist in BJP? Or BSP or Trinamool Congress? No, they cannot exist in any other party except the Congress because in the Congress we are like ‘look we don’t agree with you but the negotiation cannot stop’,” he said.

Responding to a question on the three contentious farm laws, the Congress leader said that his party was very much for the reforms but those reforms must be done in consultation with the stakeholders.

“The Congress party wants reforms in agriculture but the reforms have to be done in consultation with the stakeholders. You have to give that negotiating power to the producer who is a stakeholder. The three farm laws brought by this government strip the producer of any power to negotiate,” Gandhi said.

He said that agriculture has the potential to create millions of jobs in India if the agri policies are steered deftly.

Asked to comment on the status of 'electoral autocracy' given to India by a US-based organisation recently, he Rahul Gandhi said, "We don't need a stamp from them. The situation is much worse than they imagine."

Explaining his point, he said electoral democracy cannot be separated from the institutional framework.

“Election is not only about people going to vote and pressing a button. It is about narrative, it is about institutions that make sure that the framework of the country is working properly. It is about a judiciary being fair…Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi used to have elections. They used to win them. They were actually voting. It's not like that there was no voting but there was no institutional framework to protect that vote,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said that the BJP already controls the narrative through television and social media etc.

“In the 21st century if you control the narrative with WhatsApp, Facebook etc you can easily have the pretence of elections,” he said.