Rahul Gandhi thanks BJP, says its 2014 defeat of Congress taught him a lot

He said, 'A leader's job is to look 5-10 years ahead and not implementing things forcibly that will make people cry'

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said by defeating the grand old party in 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) helped him a lot.

Rahul, while addressing a business community here, said the defeat was helpful for the Congress.

"BJP helped me a lot, the Lok Sabha election we lost in 2014 proved to be very beneficial for us. By defeating the Congress, BJP taught me a lot," Rahul said.

He said his family has Mahatma Gandhi's values and he felt bad when he saw the body of his father Rajiv Gandhi's assailant.

"My family has Gandhi Ji's values. I felt bad when I saw the body of my father's killer Prabhakaran. I shared this even with Priyanka, she said she felt bad too," he said.

Talking about the employment opportunity in the country, the Congress vice-president said the Indian system is of killing innovation.

He also hit out at the ruling dispensation and said a leader should be foresighted and should not implement things "forcibly".

"Our system is of killing innovation, people don't kill it, bureaucracy does, Home Ministry does. If a person tries to do something, new 50 people pull them back," Rahul said.

"A leader's job is to look 5-10 years ahead and not implementing things forcibly that will make people cry," he added.

The Congress vice-president said the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) Government's record was better than that of National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) in terms of providing employment to people, but added that even their 'record was 5 on 10'.

"Excuses won't work, if in 5-10 years, India doesn't employ 30,000-40,000 daily then no one will be able to control the anger that'll spread. In India, every 24 hrs, 30,000 youth come to job market but the government is able to give employment to only 450, Chinese Government gives employment to 50,000 daily," he said.