 On this stage, thank you, Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Rishi Burwa, Director of Pratidine. I now invite Mr. Rishi Burwa to felicit Mr. Gandhi. Ladies and gentlemen, once more I am requesting you to put the mobile in the silent mode so that the conversation with Mr. Rishi Burwa and Mr. Gandhi can begin. The floor is over to Mr. Gandhi. Rishi. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to the first day, to the second day first session of the Contlave 2023. With me is a man who needs no introduction, the man himself, Sri Rahul Gandhiji. At the very outset, I extend my warmest greetings and thank you, Rahul Ji, for taking out time from his busy schedule to be a part of our humble endeavor. Before I start putting forward a few questions, I would like to share a small story with you all. So around two months back, I reached out to Rahul Ji's office, seeked an appointment to invite him here today. He patiently heard me out and then at the end he told me, Rishi, it's been a while I have not been to these format, these type of format events. And I'm not sure, but still for you I will try. Then I came back to Guwahati office. We discussed what to do, what not to do. So for every session when you hold a Contlave like this, there are a lot of speakers. So someone might come, someone might not turn up, so we have to look for alternatives as a backup. We look for backups for everyone, but I stood by it that Rahul Ji will come till the last day. So if Rahul Ji wouldn't have come today, it would have gone blank because I was 101% sure, even at the last moment, he will come for us. And ladies and gentlemen, please understand, it's after six long years, he is in this format. He has not been to any national channels also. We take pride in that. And thank you Rahul Ji for choosing a Sam in the Northeast to be a part of this endeavour. Thank you so much. To begin our conversations, you have seen Rahul Ji in the parliament, in the press conferences, in political rallies. So today we would like to have some candid conversations with him. To begin with Rahul Ji, recently the Instagram, we saw a lot of pictures of a bike rally to Ladakh. And it looked more like, you look more like a professional biker. So you stung the whole media by going there on a bike and the pictures really look nice. So what was the intent behind it? Was it a personal trip? You wanted to visit it? Usually youngsters do that on a bike to Ladakh. So was it an extension of Bharat Jodo? You know, good morning all of you. It's a pleasure for me to be here. Thank you for inviting me. You know, we do political tours. And the political tours, if you see most of us politicians, they are very straightforward. Go to a place, have a public meeting, come back. And I don't think that format is useful or powerful in any way. It's not effective. And so when we do tours now, we think slightly deeper about the message that we're trying to give and the sense we're trying to give the people of the state. And so the message that we wanted to give to the people of Ladakh, first was that we are not going to let inaccessibility, bad roads, stop us from reaching any corner of Ladakh. We're not going to allow the people to feel that they are so far away that we cannot reach out to them. Number two, we wanted to give a message to the people of Ladakh and the people of India that tourism is very important for Ladakh. People travelling from the rest of the country to Ladakh is the lifeblood of Ladakh. It supports them. It's beautiful. It's an excellent motorcycling route. And so we wanted to give multiple messages through that tour. And I think it was very effective. It also allowed me to, in a sense, continue the idea of the Bharat Jodo format in a different way, a different way of engaging with people. If you go, if you speak from a stage, you don't really connect with people like you do when you physically meet them, hold their hand, get a hug from them. Maybe these days, get a selfie. So it's a totally different feel. You travelled out of the eve of late Rajivji's birthday. Am I correct? Yeah. Did Rajivji mention about this to you? Yes, he had said once somewhere. He had said once that Pangong Lake is one of the most beautiful places he's been to. And I had always been trying to go to Pangong Lake, but somehow never managed to go there. It's actually quite complex to go there. The road is pretty bad and it takes quite a long time to go. So I was keen to go and we made sure that we went there. We also made sure that we went to all the regions of Ladakh. Okay. Yeah. Coming to Bharat Jodo Yatra, the name itself describes what's the intent of the Yatra. We have seen all the coverages. We have read about it. We know why the Yatra was organized. But we don't know your perspective. Politically, what were your learnings from this Yatra? I'm sure you've met thousands of people. You have heard their stories. You held their hands. You walked with them from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. So politically, what were your learnings from it? And as a human being also? I mean politically, my learnings were that in 21st century India, the communication architecture is so captured by the BJP that it is practically impossible to talk to the people of India through that communication architecture. And I mean, for example, it's very clear that even things like my YouTube channel, my Twitter, they're all suppressed. There's no question about it. We can see it. So the Yatra was almost a necessity for us to communicate because no matter what we say in the opposition, it does not move through without distortion in the national media. And so for me, the big learning was old style communication, going and meeting people which frankly Gandhi ji pioneered in India in the modern era. Others pioneered it in the older times. And you have examples all over the world, all over India. That still works. And what was beautiful to me was that no matter how much energy the BJP put, no matter how much the media tried to distort, it didn't work because of the direct connection. And for every story that the BJP media was trying to put in, there were thousands and thousands of videos coming from people which were contradicting that story. So it was almost a reverse capture of the mass media. And this problem is being faced across the world. This problem is not just an Indian problem. It's being faced in many other countries. And when I go there and I speak to them, it's very interesting that pretty much all countries are feeling this type of pressure. That's a political learning. And I mean that's fine. But for me, the personal learning was even more interesting. Which was that where you think your limit lies is nowhere where your limit actually lies. So your limit is much, much further than you can even imagine. And it's not just in politics. It's in everything. And I think it's the same for everybody. That normally you'll think, OK, I can go there. Or I can do this. But by definition, when you're thinking that you can do that, you're already short changing yourself. Because what you can do is almost not imaginable to you. Rahul Ji, I'm sure there might be some learnings. I get disturbed when we're having this type of conversation. You call me Rahul or call me Mr. Gandhi or something. Rahul Ji doesn't. I don't like it. Because I'm not calling you Ji. So then you shouldn't call me Ji. OK, so I'll stick to Mr. Gandhi. Yeah, call me Rahul. So Rahul, this yatra after the yatra or while you're continuing the yatra as well. When I mentioned political learnings, I'm sure you might have come out with few solutions which you might want to implement if voted to power. There might be certain issues which you might have picked up during the yatra. That you know that it can be solved like this or like that, whatever. So are there any issues which you want to pick up if voted to power and find solutions to it? See, when you're thinking about these things, there are a couple of levels at which you have to view them. So the foundational level in my view is their fairness and participation. Meaning, for example, does the northeast feel that it is participating in the national conversation? Does the northeast feel that its ideas, its culture, its vision is being incorporated in the national conversation? So that would be a basic fairness, right? And there on many axis, India is just completely failing, right? I did a speech in parliament where I raised the point that the core of Indian government, 90 people who run this country and they have much more power than MPs and MLAs. They decide policy. That's not how it was supposed to be. MLAs and MPs were supposed to decide policy and that's how we started. But today bureaucrats decide policy. And so I looked at the 90 top bureaucrats in this country and I was shocked. I mean, I've completely blown away. Three of them are OBCs. Now the question arises, what is the percentage of OBCs in India? What is the percentage of Dalits in India? What is the percentage of tribal minorities in India? If we do not know that, we cannot even begin to question to address the issue of fairness. No, fairness, right? We know by and large there are 50% women in India. So we have a sense of okay, we know how to address this issue. Because we know there are 50% women and so it should be by and large 50% breakdown. If I see 50% women sitting here, I'm comfortable. But in large areas, we just don't know it. So for me, the caste census now is a central pillar of thinking about equity in this country. So that would be at the broader level. And then you say okay, are we giving our kids the type of education we should be giving? Are we giving them and their parents and their grandparents the type of health care system that we should be giving them? And then there we have examples. So I was in Rajasthan yesterday and I think the health care solutions that we have come out with in Rajasthan are cutting edge anywhere on the planet in the 21st century. So there we can see that okay, there are some ideas that Rajasthan has developed. If you go to Chattisgarh, some of the work that we are doing with connecting traditional production activities, manufacturing activities, some of the work we are doing with farmers is completely cutting edge. You go to Karnataka, the social security system we have set up in Karnataka is cutting edge. So there are examples of these things we can look and say okay, this state is doing well. Rajasthan can become a framework for a national health care solution. Raulji, coming to Rajasthan Chattisgarh, when after 2014 non-BJP parties did win few of the states and after that there was an air that there might be a change in 2019 in the government but obviously that did not materialize. In coming days you have four major state elections. You might win all of them or might not win any of them or might win 15% of them. No, the question of us not winning any of them is not going to happen. I will tell you, there is no question, there is no way we are not going to win any of them. I would say right now we are probably winning Telangana. We are certainly winning Madhya Pradesh, we are certainly winning Chattisgarh. Rajasthan, we are very close and we think we will be able to win. So that is what it is looking like and by the way that is also what the BJP is internally saying. We learnt a very important lesson in Karnataka. And the lesson was that the BJP wins elections by distracting and not allowing us to construct our narrative. And so what we did in Karnataka, we fought the election in a way where the BJP could not... What you are seeing today, you know this gentleman Mr. Biduri and then suddenly this Mr. Nishikandu. This is all the BJP trying to distract from the idea of the caste senses. They know that the caste senses is a fundamental thing that the people of India want and they don't want to have their discussion. So every time we bring a point on the table, they use this type of stuff to distract. And we have learnt now how to deal with it. We have learnt how to deal with it. So what did we do in Karnataka? We gave a clear vision for the state. This is the social security program that we are going to set up for you. And then we control the narrative. If you look at the Telangana election, we are controlling the narrative. The BJP is not even in the narrative now. It's gone. In fact, the BJP party has been decimated. It's over in Telangana. If you look at the narrative in Madhya Pradesh, we are controlling the narrative. If you look at the narrative in Chhattisgarh, we are controlling the narrative. No matter what the BJP tries to do, they are not capturing the narrative anymore. So we are also adapting and learning. If you go and speak to the people of Rajasthan and you say, listen, what is the key issue in terms of anti-incumbency in Rajasthan? And you can go and do this. They'll tell you, actually, we like the government. We like what they've done on healthcare. We are very comfortable with the type of stuff they're doing. 500 rupee gas cylinder, the farm loan waiver, we are very comfortable with it. So we are adapting in a situation where the BJP controls the media. We are adapting and controlling the narrative. So if you look at Bharath Chodoh, we control the narrative. And they put in thousands and thousands and thousands of crores to take away the narrative. They couldn't do it. So don't think the opposition isn't capable of adapting. We are adapting. We're working together. We are 60% of India's population. BJP is in for a surprise in 2024. That's what my next question was. So if you win three states, four states, I appreciate the confidence. My best wish is for you. So if you silently go and ask the BJP people, you ask the BJP leadership in Rajasthan, right? Ask them what's going to happen in the election. They'll tell you. Ask them what's happening in Chhattisgarh. They'll tell you. But will it set the momentum for 2024 if you win maybe four of them? Are you confident it'll set the momentum for 24 because that did not happen in 19? I'm sure you have learned and adapted like you are saying right now. Controlling the narrative, pushing forward your agenda. So look, I'll tell you what the game is. The BJP has basically created a friendly monopolist. His name is Mr. Adani. I assume you've heard his name. You've heard his name? See, you're even a bit hesitant. You're even a bit hesitant. So he has created this gentleman and essentially is handing over the key industries of our country to this gentleman. And this gentleman controls a significant chunk of the media in this country, right? And there are other monopolists, but this man is the main gentleman. So there is a massive concentration of wealth that this gentleman has. And there is a huge amount of money that the BJP is generating from this, right? There is media control. There is financial control, right? Please go and ask any businessman in India what happens to them if they support an opposition party. If they were to write a check for any opposition party, ask them what happens to them, right? So we are facing a financial attack. We're facing a media attack. And we're doing pretty well. We're banded together. I have not seen the opposition working like this before. Where we can sit down on the table and we can say, look, we don't quite agree with you on that. And they can say, well, you know, we don't agree with you on that. And we'll say, okay, so what about this compromise solution? And they're like, absolutely, this works for all of us, right? So there's a great deal of flexibility. And I must tell you, I am very impressed with the flexibility that all the opposition parties are showing. Because we understand what is at stake here. We are not fighting now a political party, right? We are fighting the Indian state. And we are fighting to defend the idea of India. And that is why we have given our name India. Sir, what's your opinion on one India, one election, combining assembly elections with looks of elections? What's your take on that? It's one of the BJP's distraction strategies, right? Okay. Look, we started off with one election. Right. Right. And when we started our elections, why do we have different dates? Because in the Indian system, a chief minister can say, actually, in year two, I feel comfortable enough to win an election. And I'm going to hold an election. Right. So at any point, a chief minister can declare elections. Right. So obviously that's why this is happening. Do you think it's practically possible with so many states, so many political dynamics, and then Lok Sabha? It's a distraction. It's a distraction. Look, the main issues in India are simple. Concentration of wealth. Huge inequality in wealth. Number one. Number two, massive unemployment. Number three, huge unfairness towards the lower caste, towards OBCs, towards tribal communities. These are the issues. Everybody knows the price rise. Thousand rupees cylinder. Right. Now, BJP can't contest those. Right. So let's have Mr. Biduri make a statement. Let's have, you know, let's get together and sort of have elections together. One, you know, let's change the name of India. It's all distraction. We know it. We understand it. And we're not going to let them do it. So recently the, there had been discussions on the women's reservation bill. And this is one of the bills where Congress party has come out in support of, but excluding the two footnotes which you had been mentioning in the parliament also, and also in your press conference recently. So what is the reservation on that? I mean, the women's bill, which every single party has supported, can be implemented tomorrow morning. All you have to do is you have to say 33% of the seats are going to be reserved for women in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha. It's very simple. There's nothing more to it. If the BJP was serious about doing it, that's what they'd do. There's no connection between giving women's reservation and census. There's no connection between giving women's reservation and delimitation. They're not connected, right? So once again, it's a distraction. They suddenly needed, you know, they came up with the idea of the special session and they needed something. That they came out with, because we made a speech about Adani and that newspaper, we did a press conference about Adani and the newspaper, the Financial Times came out with a story. Suddenly they want to do a special session. The first thing they were planning in the special session was, you know, India go Bharat Kardo and then they got a backlash. They realized that there's a huge cost to this. People were not like this. So then they back down on that and now they've come out with this. But they've not actually given anything to the women of India. What they're saying is, in 10 years you'll get a women's reservation bill. And we're saying, no, give it today. What you've said about the census, what you've said about delimitation, these are excuses. Give them 35%. Give them now. We'll support them. Okay, sir. If voted to power, do you commit that without the footnotes, you'll get it implemented as soon as possible? Absolutely. 100%. See, please look at our record. I spoke in parliament the other day that we consider the independence to be the beginning of the transfer of power to the people of India. Not the end, the beginning. Right? One man, one vote. Institution set up in the interest of the people of India. And we consider that to be work in progress. And we feel very strongly that Indian women are not participating in the political system the way they should be. The single biggest act to help Indian women participate in politics was carried out by the Congress party, which is 33% reservation in Panchayati Raj. That was a game changer. And we want to do this. And it's our record. Please also remember that when we were trying to pass the 33% reservation in Panchayati Raj, the BJP opposed us. And also realized that the RSS does not allow women into its ranks. So who is interested in women's empowerment is very clear. Sir, coming to India Alliance, it's a new marriage. You have had run a coalition government for 10 years. UPA-1, UPA-2. But now you have new partners in the India Alliance, which were your principal opponents in certain places. For example, Ahmadi Party in Delhi, TMC in Bengal. So as of now, it looks nice. It seems everything is going fine. But when it comes to distribution of tickets, there are many tall leaders in this alliance. You have worked with Sharad Pawar, but you have not worked with Uddhav Thakre or Arvind Kejriwal. Of course we have. We have run a government with Uddhav Thakreji. You have not worked with Arvind Kejriwal. And there are many like TMC, they might be there from outside support. No, but we worked with Mamtaji. Mamtaji used to be in the Congress. Sir, my question to you is, going forward, like Ahmadi Party and Congress, you ruled Delhi for quite a long time. And now Ahmadi Party is strong in the Delhi politics. So what would be the dynamics then? Because you will also like to retain power in Delhi. They would also like to fight. Similarly in West Bengal, TMC has shown its strength over a period of time. At the same time, the leader of opposition from your party is from West Bengal. So obviously you would also like to throw some weight and win some seats from there. But TMC is quite strong there. They have shown their strength. They have a proven track record. How do you think you will manage these and also accommodation of the tall leaders which are there as partners in your Indian alliance? So there are two things, right? The first thing is that the opposition is thinking about this election in a fundamentally different way than it thought about any other election before this one. Which is that the opposition is united in the idea that India is now under attack. The concept of India, the concept of free elections, the concept of free speech, they are now under mortal threat as far as the BJP is concerned. So this is something that is unanimous which means that our behavior has to change. Which means that our flexibility has to increase. Which means that we have to realize that we are now fighting for the soul of India which requires a different level of cooperation. That's the first point. The second point is actually if you look at the alliances the bulk of them are pretty much stitched up. There are a couple question marks but the bulk of them are stitched up, right? Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, the big places there is no issue. In some of the smaller places there is an issue. We will try to iron out those issues, right? But the broader way we are dealing with each other is that we are seeing each other now as defending the idea of India. Earlier we were thinking that look this is a fight between a political party and another political party. Now we are saying no, no, no, no. Now the RSS and the BJP are trying to destroy the idea of India. Free speech, participation of everybody, you know, the destruction of anybody, any business person who stands against these monopolies, these are anti-India ideas. Sir, if voted to power what is your idea, what are you going to do for the OBC? If, for example, you are saying BJP is deviating from the topic with an urgent session, Women's Reservation Bill, are you also planning to control the narrative like you said you are learning from them and from the past experiences, are you also controlling the narrative by speaking up for the OBCs? No. And plan something you have in mind to do for them and once voted to power? I used OBC as a frame, right? I was shocked that out of 90 people who control the government of India, three are from the OBC community, right? And those three people control 5% of the Indian budget. 95% of the Indian budget is not in their control. And I haven't even spoken about the tribals, I haven't even spoken about the Dalits or the minorities, right? Now, this is not only the case in Secretaries of Government of India, this is the case across the board. So the first step, as I said in a speech yesterday, if somebody gets hurt, they go to hospital, the first step is okay, take an x-ray, let's see what's happened, right? So the caste census is an x-ray. Let us actually understand our OBCs, 5% of India's population, or are they more? If they are more, how much more? So that is the foundation of any discussion. Now, we already have the OBC census data. It's with the Government of India. The Congress Party carried out that survey, right? The first thing we'll do is release that information. On day one, that information will be available to the people of India. And I think that is in a world, in a 21st century world, data where we all say data is key, data is key, data is key, well, it's key to know who's who. So that would be the foundation. And then we would work, as I said earlier, with the concept of transferring power to the people of India. What the BJP is doing is taking away power from the people of India. When you feel uncomfortable, when you can't speak outside, when a small business man cannot contest Mr. Adani, they're taking away power from the people of India, right? We are fighting that. What India Alliance is trying to do, take back power to the people of India. And that includes a accessible education system, an accessible, high-quality education system. It includes an accessible medical system. It includes support to small business people. It includes support to small media houses. You know, you asked me, listen, I told you, listen, I haven't gone to these conclaves. Well, I would consider you a relatively small player. I'm sitting here. I'm trying to give a message that, look, we are, we want everybody in India, regardless of who they are, how big they are, to feel comfortable. We don't want them to feel, we don't want them to feel, look, and it is not only farmers. It's small business people. It's somebody who's contesting in a business environment where he's being unfairly treated by a huge monopolist, right? We want the energy of India to build the country. We don't believe that one or two people can build the country. We believe that if you really want to build the country, we have 1.4 billion people, and they should participate in the governance of this country. They should participate in businesses, they should participate in building the infrastructure. It should be a much more spread-out process. Sir, since we are from Samin, North East, so I'd like to ask a few things on that. Sir, you are one of the few tall leaders who have visited Manipur, visited the relief camps, met the displaced people. So what are your learnings from there? And also, a few pointers which you wish to put forward to come out with a message, a solution for them. Look, I've been in politics. I've been in politics now since 2004. And I must have traveled to pretty much every district. Most districts I've visited two or three times, every state. I've never seen what I saw in Manipur. In my entire life in Indian politics, I've not seen it. And I'll tell you the story. When we arrived there, both all the communities were very happy for me to go. And they all invited me. When we arrived there, when we were going to visit one community, say we were going to visit the Kuki community or the Meite community, we were told before we entered that, listen, we are very happy for you to come. But if in your security, there is a person from the other community, we will shoot him. So we had to, before we entered the area, we had to say, okay, we are going into Kuki area. Meite, please leave. And then when we were going into Meite area, we had to say, okay, we are going into Kuki area. Meite, please leave. Now, I've never seen this. Where the government of India has absolutely no control, where the government of India cannot send its own paramilitary force, personnel into an area. So what has happened is that the politics of hatred that the BJP has been playing with has basically destroyed the state of Manipur. Manipur, you said, you said the state of Manipur, and I was thinking, well, actually, no. The idea of Manipur does not exist anymore. It has to be brought back to life. And the culprit is the politics of the BJP. Right? So that's an extreme example of what happens when you make people fight with each other. And we went and, you know, we spoke to some of the administration people and they said, look, we have no control. We simply cannot control it. I've never seen this in my whole life in India. I mean, you can expect this, you know, in Rwanda, maybe where there's a civil war, you're not expected in India. And so this is the danger of what the BJP is doing. The danger is that this will spread. Sir, in perspective of Assam, whenever there is an election, let it be Assembly, Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, there's always a question of you, of Congress having an alliance with AIDF, Ajmal's AIDF. There have been partners with you in UPA as well. As far as I know, that's not a question anymore. So do you confirm that... We are not having an alliance with them. Okay. Sir, Northeast has eight states now, out of which four are ruled by regional parties who are in alliance with the NDA. That's not correct. Actually, all of them are ruled by the BJP. Okay. Every single one of them is ruled by the BJP using the coercive power of the Indian state. Do you have any plan to bring them in your fold because it has 24 seats? Absolutely. So are you in talks with them? No. I mean, I don't get into the operational details at the state level. I think that our parties in the local area do. I mean, of course, they do discuss it with Mr. Kharge and sometimes with me, but that's more their responsibility. But what we do, what we do clearly see is that there is pressure from the BJP. These are not just, you know, happy partners. Happy partners. There's pressure. There's clear pressure. Okay. Will Sam see a Bharat Jodo Yatra? Well, that's work in progress and we don't want to ruin any possible surprises. We also have some beautiful roads like Ladakh. You can bike around there if you want. So... Yeah. I mean, I'm planning now a trip to Mizoram. Okay. And I think that is a good idea. I think for myself, having a longer tour and a sort of deeper tour where I meet people in the different states of the Northeast, I think that would be a good thing. It would be very, very useful for me because it allows me to understand with a bit more depth what the people of the region want. So it's something that we are thinking about and we'll do. And that's discussion in progress right now. Okay. So I'm sure all of us have... You know, you're saying, is there going to be another Bharat Jodo Yatra? Please realize, walking 4,000 kilometers is not like something you do. You get up in the morning and say, let's go, let's go. Let's walk 4,000 kilometers. It's not an easy thing to do. You know, it's hard. Right. So I'm sure all of us have... The tendency is... Okay, brother. Go north from South. Go west from here. Okay. Then cut from this angle. Then cut from this side. No, I mean, you know. Those are difficult things. But I don't know about the timing. But the walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir allowed me to see India through a particular lens, a particular framework. Right? And I'm certain that the walk from east to west to west to east will allow me to see India from a different perspective in a different framework. I think walking from south to north is completely different. Then walking from... West to east. West to east to west. It's a different paradigm. It's a different way of thinking. So I will have the opportunity, if we do it, to see India from a completely different perspective. So it's something that I'm quite keen to do. Let's hope that... You'll be surprised, but... Actually, it's fun. It's a crazy thing, but it's fun. You meet people and you meet very interesting people. They tell you stuff. There's a lot of affection. People are very loving. You see it very differently than when you go in a flight or when you go in a car or when you... It's a completely different world because there is suffering involved. It opens the mind if you're sitting and you're in pain. You see all our ancient rishis and all sitting there or you see images of the Buddha or you see images of Guru Nanak sitting there. That's the reason. Because they're purposely putting themselves through stress. They're putting themselves through pain. They're putting themselves through disturbance. And when you do that, it opens your mind. It allows you to see things that you never see before. You walk. I walk a couple of thousand kilometers. I'm telling you, after... On day 3 or day 4, I was saying, what have I done? Seriously, because I was like, how is this going to happen? How am I going to actually walk 4,000 kilometers? And then slowly, slowly, it unfolds. It happens. You're from different spaces of work. You're from different... You're business people. You're people who work in the NGO field. That's how you should think about it. Just take a challenge that you think you can never do. And put yourself under stress. And then you'll suddenly find that you will yourself start pulling out avenues that you'd never imagined here. And so for me, it's a learning experience. Of course it's a political experience, but it was much more a personal experience for me. My people wanted a political element to it. I was like, I'm not interested in a political element. Because for me, this is much more about... It's like a labor of love. It's not politics. It's... My country has given me so much. Has given me so much affection. It's like... Repaying a debt for me. Okay. I'm sure all of us have seen Rahul Ji speaking at various occasions. So I've come up with a small quiz for you. And with this we'll end it. So it's a personal quiz. So you have to choose between the two. I'll give you two options. You have to choose between the two within 10 seconds. There are no prizes for it. But still you have to choose. So beginning... So workout or Netflix and chill? Workout. Indian cuisine or Chinese? Both. Okay. Martial arts or scuba diving? Now see these are both. But if you were to say, okay, it's situational. So if I'm working in Delhi and all then martial arts. Scuba diving is something that you would do. You would have to go there. Bharat Joro beard or clean shaved? Either. This is a problem that the Congress always has with me. Which is that I really am not too concerned about beard. I'm quite... Okay with that. Yeah, I'm okay with... Give me anything. Give me any clothes. I'm not too attached to these things. Okay. Do you think you can read on social media or reading a book? Okay. Godfather or the Dark Knight? You know, that's a very difficult one. They're both very, very deep movies. You know. So I would go with both. Okay. Ice cream or Golgappa? Ice cream. Okay. If not a politician then who? Anything. See, I don't see it like that. Politician is one frame of me. Right? When I am talking to my nephew and his friends, I'm a teacher. Right? When I am in the kitchen, I'm a cook. So we all have many different frames. Right? Okay. You are a journalist. You're a father. You're a son. You might have certain skills that are as important to you as journalism. But you will be seen with one lens. Right? Right? You'll be seen with the journalist. Right. So I'm actually... One of my lenses... Is politician. Is politician. And then I view my life as a journey. Right? Okay. I have to learn and understand things on this journey. Okay. Next question is tricky. You can choose anyone. Love of your life. It can be a sport, a person, your mother, your sister, anyone. I mean quite a few. You can name one or two friends. I mean my mother, my sister, my little puppy these days is... You know, and some of my friends. Yeah. Okay. And cars or riding bikes? I see them as the same thing. Okay. So it's... It's basically focus. Okay. Cricket or football or anything else? Football. Okay. Messi or Ronaldo? Ronaldo. Okay. Though I think Messi is actually a better footballer. So now you're being politically correct? No, because I think Ronaldo I like. I like Ronaldo's kindness. Okay. So but if you were to ask me, if I was running a football team, who would I prefer? I'd probably prefer Messi. Okay. So if cricket, Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma? You know, I mean either. I'm not a huge cricket fan. I know that's not a good thing to say, but I'm not a huge cricket fan. Okay. Bharat or India? Bharat? Sorry, India that is Bharat. Beauty with brains or just beauty would do? Brains with beauty. Okay. Sneakers or sandals? Sandals. Again, again for different things. If I'm running they're not sandals. Your comfort zone? Sandals. I mean, different tools for different work. Okay. Kutabajama or T-shirt? T-shirt. Okay. Brains. Both. Okay. So this brings me to the end of this conversation with Rahulji and thank you so much for being a patient audience and thank you Rahulji for being a part of the Conflave 2023. I know it's a personal favor that you have done to me and thank you really. Thank you so much. No, I think one of the reasons. First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for coming here. But one of the reasons I did come was because I think not enough space is given to the northeast and the national conversation. And I feel that often I get the sense that the people of northeast feel that they should have much more participation, that we should listen to them, understand them, understand their culture, understand their languages. So to me it was important that I gave a message. It wasn't just a personal thing. It was important that I gave a message that for us, all parts of India, no matter how big or small, are important. They all build, help build India and we love and respect them all. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Gandhi. Thank you Mr. Burwa.