Alienation hurts growth, says Rahul

In comments that may be seen as an attack on Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi today said alienation of minorities hurts the country's growth as he reached out to the industry for parternship in building a "brave empowered India" with inclusiveness and compassion.
In his first elaborate interaction with the industry, the 42-year-old who is seen as the next Prime Ministerial candidate of Congress dubbed as "irrelevant" the talk about whether or not he would lead the country, saying one individual could not address all the complex problems of the country.
The Congress Vice President shared his vision with the top business leaders of the country during an hour-long interaction at CII meet here, emphasising on the need for bringing about structural changes to empower common people and providing basic infrastructure in all respects.

"Let us work together to build a brave empowered India," Gandhi said while inviting the business to partner the government in ensuring growth.
Underlining that Congress is the only party which believes in taking everyone along, he said the country has witnessed faster economic growth under the UPA because it had greatly lowered tensions among communities and fostered harmony.
"When you play the politics of alienating communities, you stop the movement of people and ideas. When that happens we all suffer. Businesses suffer and the seeds of disharmony are sown and the dreams of our people are severely disrupted," he said, adding that this damage takes a very long time to reverse.

"The biggest danger is excluding people, including the poor, minorities and dalits... Anger, hatred and prejudice do not help growth. If you alienate communities we all suffer," he said in comments that could be seen as an attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is accused of being discriminatory towards minorities.