A single idea can't run a country: Rahul Gandhi

In a veiled attack at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that a country with over a billion population cannot possibly be run by a single idea.

Addressing a gathering of academicians here, Gandhi said, "In India, the labourer, the farmer, the small and medium businesses, everybody is saying that a country of over a billion people cannot possibly be run on one single idea. To me, the fact that we allow our people to talk, to allow them to have a discussion is the biggest strength of our country."

The Congress president further said, "I feel academicians are under attack, I understand that they feel being under pressure, you feel that an ideology is being imposed upon. You feel that one syllabus has now suddenly become acceptable to every single institution of India. You are not alone in this feeling."

Gandhi also opined that the Indian teaching system must be allowed to have its own voice and express its own opinion. "We talk about the idea of a Guru. A Guru is someone who guides you, a Guru is someone who gives you direction and he is someone who has to have the ability to express himself. I believe that the future of our country is guided by our teachers and if we do not allow them to express themselves in the classroom, we cannot have an education system," he added.

Insisting on greater stability for a robust education system, he said, "If we want an education system that works, there needs to be a sense of harmony in that system. A teacher has to have a sense that he has a future, the sense that he sacrificing something for the nation and the nation is giving him something in return - stability."

The Congress chief also remarked that the cost of our education system is spiraling and is reaching to a point where it is unacceptable.

Pointing out measures for the betterment of education system, Gandhi said, "The foundation of our system was public education system. There has to be space for the private institution but the guiding light, the foundation, the superstructure has to be a public education system. The private institution must look up to a public institution for inspiration; it shouldn't be the other way around. For this, the government has to put money into the system. The government should see education as the central part of India's strategy for development.