‘Indian Democracy Is Not on the Agenda’: Inside Rahul Gandhi’s Upcoming US Visit

The Quint spoke to Gandhi's aide Praveen Chakravarty about details of the visit and possible backlash from the BJP.

Gandhi is set to depart New Delhi for a six-day-visit to the United States on Monday, 29 June, and will touch down in San Francisco for a three-city-tour of the US. He will subsequently visit Washington DC and New York.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

“Discussions around Indian democracy are not a part of the agenda” during Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s upcoming visit to the United States, Praveen Chakravarty, the party’s Data Analytics department Chairman and a close aide to Rahul Gandhi, told The Quint.

Gandhi is set to depart from New Delhi for a six-day-visit to the United States on Monday, 29 May, and will touch down in San Francisco for a three-city-tour of the US. He will subsequently visit Washington DC and New York.

Rahul Gandhi's trip comes just a few weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US on 22 June, and will see him engage in meetings with senators, celebrities, members of the Indian diaspora, students and business leaders in the US. 

However, the visit materialised in the nick of time after Gandhi received a new ordinary passport on Sunday, and had surrendered the old diplomatic passport issued to him when he was a member of parliament.

Gandhi was disqualified as an MP following his conviction and two-year sentence by a Gujarat court in a defamation case over his Modi surname remark.

The Quint spoke to Praveen Chakravarty about the details of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the US, the Congress’ latest diaspora push and possible backlash from the ruling government, which has garnered significant support across the diaspora. 

A Look Into Rahul Gandhi’s Itinerary

San Francisco: Following touchdown in San Francisco on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi will interact with the Indian diaspora, venture capitalists, tech-executives and students at Silicon Valley. Chakravarty said that Rahul Gandhi is also meeting with academics, intellectuals and activists, followed by a meet with the Indian diaspora in the evening.

On 31 May, the former Wayanad MP will interact with senior technology executives from the Silicon Valley on artificial intelligence. Subsequently, he will deliver a lecture at California's Stanford University, after he was invited last month, on ‘The New Global Equilibrium.'

“The Stanford event is completely full and there are people scampering,” Chakravarty told The Quint.

The talk is being organised by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

He is slated to speak at the auditorium at Stanford University that saw an address from former US President Barack Obama.

“Then there are private meetings and dinners,” Praveen Chakravarty told The Quint.

Washington DC: Rahul Gandhi will visit Washington DC over the first two days of June.

On 1 June, he is set to speak at the National Press Club, which has previously seen press addresses from former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, on the future of Indian democracy, freedom of speech, and sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Gandhi will have meetings with the lawmakers and think tanks in Washington DC. He will also meet a number of think tanks, who are assembling under one roof for an interaction with the Congress leader.

“The next day there are meetings at Capitol Hill which is the senate of the US Congress,” Chakravarty said.

Gandhi will also attend a dinner hosted by Indian-American entrepreneur Frank Islam, which would also see the presence of top business leaders, Senators and Congressmen.

New York: Praveen Chakravarty told The Quint that after arriving in New York on 3 June, Gandhi is set to hold meeting with thinkers at the Harvard Club, a final club at Harvard University.

The next day, Rahul Gandhi will participate in a lunch event and meet a set of successful Indian-Americans in the creative industry, which includes the likes of comedian Hasan Minhaj, film director Mira Nair, actor Aziz Ansari, author Kiran Desai and model-turned-TV Host Padma Lakshmi.

The “finale” to Gandhi’s visit will be an address to a 10,000-person public gathering at the Javits Center in New York on 4 June.

Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra: The Origins of the US Visit

“The Bharat Jodo Yatra was almost as much of a diaspora event as it was an Indian event. We got huge support from the diaspora, both in terms of wanting to come and join the Yatra and also to discuss it,” Chakravarty told The Quint on a telephone call.

Praveen Chakravarty will accompany Rahul Gandhi from India, and the pair will be joined by Sam Pitroda in the US, along with other members of the Indian Overseas Congress.

Narrating the birth of the US visit, Chakravarty told The Quint:

“The origin of this trip was an invitation from Stanford University for him to give a talk which came quite some time back, but we waited till the Karnataka elections ended since he was very busy.

He added that while the trip started off as an invitation for an “intellectual discussion,” it became “more about diaspora outreach, as well as meeting local think tanks, thinkers and academics – to discuss global affairs.”

He noted that the origins of the Congress’ diaspora push and attributed the visit to a growing curiosity around the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress’ victory in Karnataka and to hear the Congress leader opine on agendas like the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and India’s role in the world.

The Yatra saw Rahul Gandhi, accompanied by Congress workers and supporters, walk nearly 4,080 km across 75 districts of the country, starting from Kanyakumari and culminating in Srinagar.

“The Bharat Jodo Yatra is now a global brand in politics. After the completion of the Yatra, it is a good thing to connect with the Indian diaspora and discuss the Yatra, its purpose and the experiences around it.”

‘Diaspora Detests the Path India has Taken’

During Gandhi’s trip to the United Kingdom, his remarks on the ‘state of Indian democracy’ sparked controversy back home after several BJP ministers demanded an apology from Gandhi. Throughout his interactions in the UK, Gandhi accused that in the past nine years, freedom of speech has been stifled in India.

During a phone call with The Quint, Chakravarty plainly asked:

“Does the very successful Indian diaspora in America accept how the country is being governed, and divided? Do they accept what is going on socially?”

He subsequently answered and said, “My view is that they don’t. They completely detest the path that the country has taken over the last few years in terms of what it stands for.”

Moreover, his visit comes at a time where the ruling government has seen significant waves of support from the Indian diaspora across the world - most recently during PM Modi’s visit to Australia, which saw him address a massive gathering, and during his previous visits to the US and other nations.

“I think the Indian political leaders, especially the current ruling dispensation, which is used to event management, but I don’t think selling out students can be a benchmark or a parameter,” Chakravarty told The Quint.

“We haven’t gone out and ask people to assemble in a stadium. I think it the curiosity and interest factor around the Yatra that has triggered a huge interest among the diaspora. We don’t need to resort to artificial means of mobilising,” he added.

Praveen Chakravarty also recalled PM Modi’s ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Texas, alongside former US President Donald Trump, which saw close to 50,000 attendees show their support for the PM just a few months after the BJP’s landslide victory in 2019.

“Let us not get carried away by some loud music in some Houston stadium. To go into a stadium as a sitting prime minister and say, ‘Ab ki baar, Trump sarkar’ is arguably the most foolish thing you can do from a foreign policy perspective.”

“I don’t think the Indian diaspora there is unaware of these things. I think we are being foolish if we think that it requires Mr Gandhi to speak about India’s problems abroad. Let’s be clear, the Emperor is naked,” Chakravarty further told The Quint.

He made it abundantly clear [in London] that they are our [India’s] problems, we would solve them.

“He was asked a question about the Indian democracy and he didn’t want to lie, so he presented the state of Indian democracy.”