 I would like to invite on stage Ms. Prachi Makar, all of you to get seated. Thank you so much for all your love and respect, U.S. National Anthem. Thank you. Prachi. Please all rise for the National Anthem of America and National Anthem of India. You see what's so proud, the twilight stripes and bright stars remain standing for the Indian National Anthem. Good night. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome Rahul Gandhiji and thank you so much for the opportunity. I'd like to invite on stage our vice chairman, IOC, Mr. George Abrahamji to give the welcome address. Welcome to Javitsander. Thank you very much for all your active participation, the enthusiasm and the energy. Before we start today, let me invite the Charyana Chapter under the leadership of Hudaji to come and honor Sri Rahul Gandhi with a Pongala. Next, let me invite Mr. Harkesh Sarkur of the New Jersey Chapter, Mr. Peter Kothairi and Mr. Ram Gadhula to come and honor Rahul Gandhi with a shawl. Thank you. Good afternoon. Sri Rahulji, Samji, Mohindaji, Hudaji, and Mr. Venkat Reddyji, Vijendra Singhji, Neelima Kotaji, Pannana Lashmayiji, Madhi Askiji, Rudrajiji, Ravendra Reddyji, Amirinder Singh, Amirinderji, and Hudaji, and Manishankara Yoji, and ladies and gentlemen and all other distinguished guests who are present here today. When we consider the IOC USA, it is a great privilege to welcome you to Javich Center and to interact with Sri Rahulji. As you know, Mr. Rahul Gandhi has been touring the United States in several days, and this gathering is a great finale to his successful tour currently. During his travel, he was able to interact with all sections of society, here especially the Indian diaspora that holds a special place in his heart. We are delighted to have him here today to address you and explain his progressive vision for India. His Bharat Jodo Yatra, as you know it, a walkathon that took him from southern tip of India all the way to Kashmir, will be remembered as a remarkable event in history of India. There's no doubt that what you are witnessing today, your enthusiasm, your energy is nothing but the reverberation of this great undertaking. Rahulji is a profile in courage. When others remain silent, he is willing to stick his neck out despite threats of intimidation, even at the cost of his esteem positions or even on his own dwelling. He is a ray of hope for all of us who are yearning for peace and harmony for our motherland. He knows too well that economic and social well-being is built on political tranquility. Undoubtedly, India's institutions were built under the Nehruvian vision are under great stress today. India's democracy survived till now because of the strength and resilience of these institutions. We at the IOC USA believe that although we have relocated to this country, the United States, we still have a role to play in keeping that flame of freedom alive in India as well. I urge you, all of you to join us in this endeavor to support democracy, freedom and equal justice to all the citizens of India as we enjoy the freedom and opportunities here in the United States. Martin Luther King once said, if you are silent in face of injustice, you are in complicity. Let us not be complacent. Let us raise our voice for freedom, dignity and peace in our motherland. At this point in time, let me invite Mr. Mohindra Singh Gilzian, who is the president of the Indian Overseas Congress USA. As a president, he has been working tirelessly for the last several weeks to make this event a great success. We salute him for all he has suffered and I invite him to do the welcome speech of the Rahulji and distinguished guests here on the day I ask. Jodo respected Sam Duttaji, my motherland's future, future prime minister of India, Sri Rahul Gandhi ji, ladies and gentlemen, my dear fellow Indians, it is my honor to welcome our leader, Sri Rahul Gandhi ji. Rahul ji, I took over the charge of Overseas Congress four years back. My team's dedication, hard work and commitment resulted in such an increased engagement with Overseas Indian and Senators of the Party presence in the United States. Rahul ji, the recent Baraj Jodo Jatra has inspired millions and once again provide hope for all of us who aspire for democracy and freedom. Jatra brings the gaps between various committees to promote mutual understanding. Being the president of Overseas Congress USA, I joined Baraj Jodo Jatra twice, once in Maharashtra and secondly in Punjab. And I will see your dedication and commitment to the cause of national unity and interrogation. Rahul ji, after your Baraj Jodo Jatra, we have seen result in Karnataka and Hamarchal election, where Congress party is successfully formed by government. As, Rahul ji, as I am free from most of the family responsibility and now I decide to dedicate, decide to dedicate my full time and energy toward the Congress party. And to my dream, my dream, Rahul ji, to see you as the Prime Minister of India, as the President of the Overseas Congress, I feel with pride and gratitude for the opportunity to host you today. We look forward to hearing your valuable insight, your vision for a strong India and your guidance how we as Overseas Indian Committee can contribute to our blood in nations progress. We still feel mentally and emotionally connected to India, even though we are currently in the United States of America. I don't want to speak long. We here to listen to our leader, Shri Rahul Gandhi ji, but I want to say very special thanks to our beloved leader who came from India. Specially Raja Varinder Singh ji, Raja Viding, Punjab Pradesh Congress President, Rehman Thairi ji, President Telangala ji, Dupindar Singh Huda, Dupindar Singh Huda, Member Parliament, Kota Neelma, Vijay Indra Singhla, Ex-Minister and lot of more friends. I didn't write the name, I am sorry, but lot of more leaders came from India. I am really thankful to you and I want thanks Rahul ji on behalf of the Indian Overseas Congress USA for his visit and wish him all success in the future. God bless you. Jodo Jodo. Jodo Jodo. Now can I invite Samp Dota ji, our global chairman of Indian Overseas Congress. Am I right? Dear Mr. Rahul Gandhi, distinguished leaders of the Congress party on the daayas, leaders of the Indian Overseas Congress on the daayas, dignitaries, members of the Indian Overseas Congress, Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. It is indeed a special honor and special privilege for me to be here with you to welcome Mr. Rahul Gandhi to New York. First I want to thank him for taking time from his busy schedule in India to come spend six days with us. We spent two days in Silicon Valley where we had series of interactions with Indian community and our eyes at Silicon Valley. We had a meeting at Stanford University which was quite interesting and exciting with almost thousand students. We also had another interaction at Pantaklari University campus and we had interaction with few experts from AI industry. We had a dinner, the community there and then we came to Washington DC where we had some very interesting interactions with the press, the National Press Club, think tank, some other important people in the government. Some we made public, some we decided to keep it to ourselves. Then we had next day few more meetings with NGOs and we had a very busy schedule in Washington. Then we came to New York where we had two events yesterday. We had interaction with group of intellectuals. We had dinner with the IOC, members and leaders and donors and then we had this morning interaction with cultural people, people from movie industry, artisans, comedians, filmmakers. And finally a grand finale with all of you. I want to thank you all also from bottom of my heart that you all have taken time from your busy schedule on Sunday to be here with us. I know people have traveled from Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston and many other parts of the country on the east coast to come spend some time with us. The main purpose of this visit is all about interacting with NRI community, learning from them, connecting with them and also meeting with American leaders, institutions to really explain to them our version of what is going on in India. It is more about sharing and caring for each other. I must say Mr. Gandhi had phenomenal reception. Everywhere we went, hundreds and hundreds of key people came to see him. My phone hasn't stopped ringing for last six days. I haven't yet read about thousand emails on my phone and close to 500 messages because everyone wants to meet, connect, advise and want to know more about Rahul Gandhi's visit. Our main message is that Indian democracy is under stress. Indian institutions are compromised, whether it is judiciary, police, income tax office, ED, even universities. Our vice-translators are not really allowed to do certain things and promote free speech. Our civil society is compromised because people have been harassing NGOs, issues related to foreign exchange violation, so-called money laundering. And I speak to large number of people, especially in NGOs, and they all complain. Three, the media has been basically controlled. Mindset is such that you cannot have a logical, rational, decent conversation with anybody. Conversation immediately degenerates into discourse that is difficult to carry. All of these things bother to those who believe in democracy with freedom, equity, inclusion, justice, diversity, because we see polarized politics all over. Communities are divided. Conversation is misleading. Things are taken out of context and amplified, broadcasted to make something they don't mean. And again, the purpose is to create divide. I know in my own case, if I say something, it is twisted and presented as something else, so I get hundreds of calls from my Congress friends, did you say this? What do you mean by this? Why did you say it? I didn't even say that. In the process, lot of confusion is created and people are really not very clear as to what is truth and what is lie. I have seen lie being propagated on a very large scale in the last many years. I have seen mistrust. I have seen false information propaganda. I have also seen hate between one community and the other. I always give this example that when I grew up in a small little tribal village in Orissa, right in front of my house was a Muslim family. We were five sisters and three brothers. They were five brothers and three sisters. Next to it was Sardar family. On the left was a giant family, Marwari. In the back was Uriah. We all lived together, played together, ate together and nobody ever thought that this was Muslim or this was Sikh. No one ever felt that we were different. My brother could be found playing in Sardarji's house and my sister could be playing with Muslim girls next door. That was the India that we had dumped off. I grew up in India where there was a picture of Gandhi ji, Nehru, Patel, Maulana Azad and Netaji Bose. We were taught to believe in truth and trust and lies and I tell you that was a very different India from the India I see today. India I see today is all about conflicts, unnecessary conflicts and that bothers many of us. So we have two narratives in India today. Congress narrative which is more about truth, trust, love, diversity, inclusion and you have another narrative which is exactly opposite. It is about lies, it is about mistrust, it is about hate, it is about uniformity. And Rahul Gandhi in many of his conversations in the last six days has spoken a great deal about the need to have a different conversation with different states in India. And I am sure he will talk about this at length. I had an opportunity to work with Rahul Gandhi's dad, Rajiv Gandhi for a decade and then with Dr. Manmohan Singh for a decade. It was not dictatorial. Prime Minister never took credit for anything. Prime Minister supported us, gave us credit. When something got done, Prime Minister was never in front saying I got it done. I must tell you that when I started telecom with Raju Gandhi, we had two million telephones. It used to take ten years to get telephone connection. Most of you are too young to grasp that idea of ten years of waiting list. In a short span of 30, 40 years, we have 1.4 billion phones and we generate $200 billion worth of software export. The seeds were planted during Rajiv Gandhi era. I personally say that Rajiv Gandhi gave meaning to my own life. He gave us chance to do things, dream about the future. In 1980 liberalization was a dirty world. Privatization was a dirty world. We fought the system. Manmohan Singh and Narsimha Rao carried it forward. Every little things that you see today in terms of fruits, seeds were planted by Congress party. Whether IITs, IIMs, universities, I could come and do things here in this country only because India gave me an opportunity to get my Masters in Physics for $10 total fee for six years. And then Prime Minister Narendra Modi turns around and says India did nothing for 70 years and that hurts. That's a lie. And people are comfortable with lie. If I would lie, I won't be able to sleep that night and I don't know how they do it. So India is what India is today because we all worked very hard. Mr. Rahul Gandhi also spoke a great deal about US-India relationships and his version of what is important to some of the key people in this country and also to media. And there are some very interesting lessons to learn from what he has to say. On one hand, America looks at India relationship in terms of transaction. We are buying something, so you must give something to us. We are more interested in fundamental values, relationship based on values and not on transactions. And I'm sure he will get chance to talk more about it. Finally, I want all of you to know that Indian Overseas Congress is in 32 countries. We have offices, officers. We were together in England few months ago. And what Rajiv Gandhi said there was twisted and Indian national television networks were busy for four full days. So now I'm sure from this visit also they will come up with things to really start misinformation campaign and polarize people. We plan to continue this effort to talk to global community because you are all very important to us. You are the ambassadors of India as Rajiv Gandhi has been saying. You know, I always get confused between Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi because I still think I am young. So I say Rajiv Gandhi and then I remind myself that I am too old, then I go back to Rahul Gandhi. But we do believe you are very important to us. You can help us in spreading the right message. You can help us in talking to your communities, your friends, your relatives about what kind of India we want to build. You know, recently someone came and took a picture with Rajiv Gandhi and I said, look, for every photograph I want minimum 10 votes. So your work is cut out as my work is also cut out. We have a lot of work between now and the 2024 elections. I want you to help us, help the country, help the party, help the real message of India to go around everywhere. I also want you to think about how else you can help us. You can support a local candidate. You can go back home and work with them, refine their campaign, participate in their campaign. Next 24 months we will decide the destiny of India. Next election we will decide which path we take. Do we go on the right path or do we go on the wrong path? If we miss the path, the price to be paid is going to be very heavy. I know what is going on in India from my perspective. I'm telling you for the last few days I've been very concerned. For example, the train accident in Odisha, my heart goes out to people who died and their families suffering. There is no need for an accident like that. We have all the technology for anti-collision system. We had that technology during Manmohan Singh time. I was the chairman of the report on railway modernization. I recommended then in that report that we should implement anti-collision technology for all 6500 km of track. This government agreed to it but only 1000 km has been implemented. Coming here we just learned about some bridge that fell down on Ganga. Is that the kind of infrastructure we are believing in? We have a problem with unemployment, inflation, education, health. No one talks about these things. But everyone talks about Ram, Hanuman, Mandir. And I have said that temples are not going to create jobs. Future only belongs to science. Unfortunately, BJP government has taken theory of evolution out. Now I am told to my surprise that periodic tables have been taken out of the syllabus. People don't speak against it. Indian scientists have not spoken because they are all afraid. There is fear. So I want to close this by saying to all of you, let us rise together. Let us do awakening together and not just sit tight and take it as it comes. You got to stand up, be courageous, be countered and don't be afraid of anybody. If you believe in something, speak. You got to tell everybody what path you want to take. Do you want to take BJP path or you want to take Congress path? But then you got to convince people, you got to speak, you got to work, you got to sacrifice something. It's not an easy task. But I believe this is a tougher task than we thought in the past. So with this, I want to thank you all again for coming here. I want to thank again Mr. Gandhi for taking time. I also want to thank all our leaders here. Thank you. Thank you. Please keep quiet. I am going to request you to have a moment of silence to really console all those who have affected. With the Odisha train accident. Please rise and spend 60 seconds of silence. Thank you. Now it is my proud privilege to introduce Mr. Rahul Gandhi. You need something? He does not need any introduction. So I am going to request you to sit down, get ready for a very interesting long speech. I have requested him to have long speech. He said no, I will give a short speech, but I am still requesting him again to give a long speech and educate us. Thank you. Sam Pitrodha Ji, Mohinder Ji, dignitaries on the dais, friends, IOC members, brothers and sisters, friends from the media. Thank you all for coming here today. It has been a fantastic visit. It has been fantastic because of the love and affection that the Indian community has shown to us over the last five or six days. It makes me very, very proud when I come here and I see all of you representing our country. It makes me proud because of the way you have behaved, the humility that you have shown, the acceptance that has been given to you. You didn't come here, any of you, none of you came here arrogantly. You came here with limited means and you built something fantastic, something wonderful. And all of you have different journeys, none more or less important than the other. The other thing that you did was accepted the culture of the United States, the language of the United States, the history of the United States, the diverse religions of the United States. You did not come here and fight or abuse the culture, the religion, the history of the United States. So for us, you and millions of you, millions like you are ambassadors, people who represent our country and people who represent a particular view of our country. Because as you know, there is a fight going on back home. A fight between two ideologies, one that we represent and the other of course that the BJP and the RSS represents. I think the simplest way to describe this fight is on one side you have Mahatma Gandhi and on the other side you have Nathuram Ghootsi. That's the best, most precise way, most precise way that I can say it. On one side a brave man, NRI like you, in fact probably the most impactful NRI that India has had in many many years. Humble man, simple man, but a man who believed in the future, who believed in India, propagated non-violence and searched for the truth. That's the ideology that we follow, that's the ideology that all of you follow in this room. And then on the other side, Nathuram Ghootsi, violent, angry, unable to face the reality of his own life. You see the reason he shot Gandhi was that he could not face his own life and so he had to take his anger out on somebody. And he chose to take his anger out on the essence, on the man who represented the essence of India. So that is the fight. Gandhi ji was forward looking, modern, open-minded, Ghootsi only spoke of the past. He never spoke of the future, only spoke of the past. He was angry, hateful and frankly he was scared, at the heart he was a coward. And he was unable to deal with his life. On the other hand, Gandhi ji faced the biggest force on the planet, the superpower, more powerful than the United States is today. And he faced it because he followed the truth and he was humble. And you're all following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar ji, Sardar Patel ji, Jawaharlal Nehru. This is who you learn from and this is who you represent. And I can go back in history. If we want to talk about humility, I can go back. I don't need to stop at Mahatma Gandhi because Mahatma Gandhi also learned from Samadho people. It is not that Mahatma Gandhi ji was the person who invented this. Before Mahatma Gandhi, if they are friends here from Karnataka, there is Basavana. If they are friends here from Kerala, there is Narayana Guru. If they are friends here from Punjab, there is Guru Nanak ji, there is Buddha. There is a list of people. I mentioned Dr. Ambedkar, Jai Bhim. And so there is a long list and if you look at the essence of all these people, you take any one of them, you take Ambedkar ji, you take Mahatma Gandhi, you take Guru Nanak ji, all the giants that have emerged from India. You can see that there are certain qualities that all of them have. First of all, and most important, they search for and represent and fight for the truth. Ambedkar ji fought for the truth of what Dalits in India were facing. And the second thing is, all these people are humble. There is no arrogance to be found in these people. And that is how you have worked in the United States. That's why you are successful. Everybody says, oh, the Indian community is so successful. Indian community is so intelligent. No. The reason the Indian community is successful here is because the Indian community has respected the United States, the people of the United States, the customs of the United States and has embraced them. You have embraced the United States. You have embraced the people of the United States. That is the heart of your success. So I commend you for that. I respect you for that and I honor you for that. Now, back home we have a problem and I will tell you the problem. Simple, BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking at the future. They are incapable. They don't, they, you can ask them anything. Ask them, ask them. Why is the train an accident? Look, Congress did this 50 years ago. Why did you remove the periodic table evolution from textbooks? Congress Party did this 60 years ago. It is immediate, immediate response. Now, you think about it. All of you came here by car using your cars. Imagine if the only thing you did was look in the rear view mirror. 14 hours when you were driving the car, you looked at the rear view mirror. Could you drive your car? You would be having one accident after the other. The passenger would be saying, Brother, what are you doing? Have you got me killed? Right? That is the phenomena of Narendra Modi ji. He is trying to drive the car, the Indian car and he only looks in the rear view mirror. And then he does not understand why this car is crashing, not moving forward. And it's the same idea with the BJP, with the RSS. All of them. You listen to them. You listen to them. You listen to their ministers. You listen to the Prime Minister. You will never find them talking about the future. They will only talk about the past. And they will always blame somebody else for the past. So, I remember a train accident when the Congress Party was in power. The Congress Party did not get up and say, Now, it is the fault of the British that the train has crashed. No. The Congress Minister, I remember, said, It is my responsibility that the train has crashed. I am resigning. So, this is the problem that we have back home. That we make excuses and we are not accepting the reality that we are faced with. The reality we are faced with is our unemployment numbers. And the fact that we need to make sure that all our youngsters are productive and get a job. And I believe, and one of the reasons I have come here is because I believe that if we want to build an India where the vast majority of our youngsters are employed, one of the things we have to think about is the bridge between India and the United States. What does it look like? What does our partnership focus on? And how do we compete with the challenge the Chinese have placed on the table? What is our view on the revolution in mobility? What is our view on the revolution on data and connectivity? And what is our view on the transformation that is taking place in the energy system of the world? These are the things that we should be discussing. And this is what? Namaskar. Have a nice day. So, this is the, you have to understand this is Congress Party's power. This is Congress Party's power. We are ready to. We are not being violent. We are not being aggressive. Right? We are not being nasty. That is our strength. Am I not right? Did we, did we shout at him and say, no, no, we didn't. We will not change our behavior. We will not change our behavior. Because, because you cannot, the thing is you cannot, please understand. You cannot cut hatred with hatred. It's impossible. It is impossible to do. I'm not interested in trying to cut hatred with hatred. I said, in the market of hatred, there is a shop of love. Your work is to spread hatred. Our work is to spread love. We will not do your work for you. We will do our work. So, so that is what we have to work on. There is a challenge in India. There is an attack on the democratic structure of our country. Full-scale attack on our institutions, on our judiciary, on our media. And it is your responsibility and our responsibility to defend the idea of India. And the idea of India, the central piece of the idea of India, is our constitution and our democracy. Modern India cannot exist without our constitution and without our democracy. So, what excites me in this type of a meeting, that I come here and I see people, thousands and thousands of people, who believe in the idea of India, who believe in the democratic principles of our country, who believe in the constitution, who believe that we should be affectionate to each other, that we should love each other. And I must tell you, it gives me tremendous strength. Tremendous strength when I see you and I see the way you behave and I see the way you act. Because in each of your hearts, there is India. You roam for 24 hours, you roam for India in your heart. Right? And which India you roam for? That India of love. The one who respects each other, the one who helps each other, the one who hugs each other, you roam for 24 hours. I have seen it. I saw it on this trip. You see a person from another culture. You will help them immediately. You will not ask, what religion are you? What community are you from? What are you wearing? No. You will say, if you need my help, I don't care which religion you are from. I am Indian and I am going to help you. To be nasty to people, to be arrogant, to be violent, these are not Indian values. They are simply not Indian values. If they were Indian values, why would we be celebrating Mahatma Gandhi Guru Nanak, Ambedkar, Basavana, Narayana Guru. Why? Because they represented the values that we appreciate. We celebrate them because we believe in what they said. And so this is a new fashion that has come. To express Indianness, you have to be hateful. To express Indianness, you have to be abusive. To express Indianness, you have to beat people. No. That's not Indianness. That's something else. And we refuse to accept that as Indian. So that's the message I want to leave you with. I have one thing, Sam, that I was thinking. Now, I've come to New York. We were in California. But there's a lot of diaspora people living in different parts of the United States. And I think the next time I come, you must take me to some other cities. You know, maybe Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta. Yeah, because my intention is to build a relationship with you. My intention is to have a relationship with you. A affectionate, loving relationship with you. Where you can say to me that, Raul, this is what we think. Raul, this is how you should think about the relationship with the United States. This is what is important. This is what we need to focus on. I'm not interested so much in telling you what I believe. I don't want to do monkey bath over here. I'm interested in your mind. I'm interested not in looking at the rear view mirror, but looking in front. And saying, brothers and sisters, how do we move forward effectively? And how as a country, do we spread affection, love and affection? How are we kind to people? That's what I'm interested in. And that's the knowledge that you have. There's huge talent in all of you. Today, just in the last meeting, a young girl came up to me and she said, Raul, there's so much I want to do for my country. I'm a Stanford graduate. But you know, I don't like the atmosphere back home. I don't like the anger, the hatred that has been spread back home. I'm concerned about going back as a young girl. That's not the India we want. The India we want is where this young lady says, I want to go back home because there's love, affection, peace, harmony in my country. And the talent, look, the central architect of modern India was an NRI. Mahatma Gandhi was an NRI. The freedom movement of India. We might not like to say this. The freedom movement of India began in South Africa. And you can see all our leaders in the freedom movement. My great grandfather, Nehruji NRI, Ambedkarji NRI, Sardar Patel NRI, Subash Chandra Bose NRI, all of them NRIs. And people who had an open mind to the outside world, who came to England in those days, came to America and said, these are interesting ideas we need to take back home. So that's what I expect from you. You are the, I would say, the next generation, future generation Mahatma Gandhi. Future generation, Ambedkarji. Future generation, Sardar Patel. And your role is to take your talent, immense talent. Maybe sometimes my criticism of you might be that you even underestimate what talent you have. Maybe that, I can say, that you don't even understand the level of talent that you have and the capability that you have. And that is what you have to bring to play. You can do it in America. You can do it back home. You can do it building a bridge between America and India. So that is what I wanted to tell you. I am at your service. I love all of you. I love all of you. I love what you do. We all love you. Can I ask you a question? Can I ask you a question? I want to ask you a small question. Have you ever heard of the BJP meeting? Have you ever heard of it? Congress people talk to each other, I love you, I love you brother, I love you brother, I love you brother. So this is India. The shop of love in the market of hatred. Thank you.