 Hi, welcome to the print. We have with us Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Welcome Rahul. Thank you. And we have with us our senior correspondent, Chitleen Sethi. So, Rahul, we are now moving to the sixth phase. One more phase left. How does it look like? What do you think it's going to? It looks pretty good. What numbers can we look at? I don't do numbers. I do feeling. And the feeling is pretty good, as you can tell. So, I think it's quite positive. A lot of disappointment with the Prime Minister. A promise of jobs where he's failed very, very badly. Farmer issues. Corruption issue. And overall, the state of the economy. These are the main issues playing out. I think everyone underestimated the pain of Note Bandi, the pain of GST, including my friends in the media. There's an undercurrent of anger. And I think it's mixed with fear. So, people are a bit scared of the Prime Minister and of his party president. So, they're not expressing it openly. But there's an undercurrent. It's going to be wiped out. But if there is a hung verdict which leaders like KCR... There will be no hung verdict. But in case there is a scenario where there is one, would you play a supporting role rather than leading the government? There's not going to be any hung verdict. It's going to be a one-sided election. However, there is a very strong undercurrent against Mr. Narendra Modi. I've already said that my masters are the people. I listen to the orders that they give. Whatever they will say on the 23rd of May, I will obey. But what impact do you think the Balakot airstrike has had on election, especially with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi? He has made it a poll issue. The election is... We've been polling people and we've been... Now I've done 100-plus meetings. The top-of-mind issue by massive margin is unemployment. Massive. The biggest issue in India today is unemployment. And people are asking the question, if China can produce 50,000 jobs in 24 hours, what is India doing losing 27,000 jobs every 24 hours? Why is India with all its brilliance, all its capability, all its energy sitting with the highest unemployment rate in 45 years? There's got to be something that's gone wrong. And that's what the Prime Minister is not answering. I mean, you listen to the Prime Minister's speeches. He's not talking about unemployment. He's not talking about his failure. He's not talking about a plan. He's not talking about farmers. He's not talking about corruption. He's hiding. He's running. And what the Congress Party and our allies have done is we've closed all the doors. So it's sad, but there's no way for the Prime Minister to run. But the Prime Minister has also been targeting your family specifically, whether it is the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, your own mother. And now the Virat issue has come to, you know, at the centre. How do you respond to that? I think the captain of the Virat has responded in an article. He said that Mr. Narendra Modi is lying. So I mean, I don't need to respond to that. Mr. Narendra Modi is trapped. He's trapped in the web of lies that he has spread. And now he's sinking. I'm frankly, as an opposition leader, I'm fighting him. And we're going to defeat him. As a human being, I'm feeling bad for the Prime Minister. I'm feeling bad because the people of India had faith in him. They believed in him. They gave him a massive opportunity and he dropped the ball. He wasted time in some imaginary world instead of getting down to doing the work for the people of India. So as a human being, I feel bad for him. In order to counter the attack on Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Sam Pitroda held a press conference and he said something flippant about the 1984 rights. I think that's completely out of line and I think he should apologise. I think 1984 was a tragedy. It caused tremendous pain to people and he absolutely owes everybody an apology. The 84 rights comes to haunt the Congress every election. What do you think is going to bring the final closure to this issue? I think justice has to prevail. The people who are responsible have to be brought to book and punished. But Shunta and Apology, we shoot from your side. Apology from the Gandhi family. That story has been carried out. The Prime Minister apologised, my mother apologised. We've all clearly made our position very clear that it was a tragedy and what Mr. Sam Pitroda has said is absolutely completely out of line and frankly, I haven't spoken to him but I will personally speak to him and say that I don't appreciate this type of nonsense. But in hindsight, do you think you should have been part of the UPA2 because BJP and your diversity is always talk about your inexperience? I don't think so. I'm not inexperienced. I don't think so. I think the UPA2 was Manmohan Singh Ji. It was the vision of Mr. Manmohan Singh Ji, the UPA1 and UPA2 and it would have been out of place for me to be part of that. I always felt that I had told Mr. Manmohan Singh Ji that he is going to lead the government and I'm not going to interfere in any way and I maintained that. It was a word I had given Mr. Manmohan Singh and I kept my word. And you must have noticed even today Congress has gone to the election commission complaining about some poll violation or the other. Prime Minister Nadine Ramodi ends up getting a clean shit. What do you think? How do you see the election commission's response to all this? It's pressure. It's Narendra Modi's imprint and you can see that imprint on the Supreme Court. You can see it on the election commission. You can see it on the planning commission. You can see it on all institutions of this country. Mr. Narendra Modi does not believe in independent institutions. The first time in our history that four Supreme Court judges have come out and said that, listen, we are asking the people of India for justice. It is unimaginable. Never happened in our history ever before. That is Mr. Narendra Modi's style. We don't expect fairness, frankly, from the election commission. I'll be very blunt with you. I don't like saying it. I'm not happy saying it. But as Congress president, I am not expecting fairness from them. I understand that they are under tremendous pressure from Mr. Narendra Modi and they are going to act in a slightly bias manner. But don't you think this can even impact the results of the elections? I hope not. I don't think so. I think there is tremendous energy behind the electorate this time. And what do you think of BJP's decision to field Sadhi, Pragya, Thakur, Uza, Malegaon, Blast, accused? How do you see that? It's not even worth me commenting on it. I mean, how do I see the fact that the president of the BJP was earlier accused of murder? How do I see that? I mean, you know, that's their style. That's their way of operating. In the rally at Fatehabad, the Prime Minister said that after the Samjwata Blast, Congress coined the word Hindu terrorism. How do you respond to that? Terror has no religion. There is no religion in the world. No religion in the world that sets people free. But Congress has also been accused of playing soft Hindutva politics, going to temples. I mean, the kind of thing that... Why is going to a temple called soft Hindutva? Am I not allowed to go to a temple? Am I not allowed to go to a mosque? Am I not allowed to go to a church? Am I not allowed to go to the Golden Temple? Am I not allowed to go to Gurdwara? Why? I love going to these places. I love seeing the spirituality of our country. I love going to places and listening to people who believe in different religions. Why am I not allowed to do it? Is it some rule that only BJP people can go to temples? Who said? Are they the masters of our religion? Who are they? Who are they? What gives them the right? Everybody has the right. You have the right to go into any religious institution you want. And there were also these reports that, you know, last December you... Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Maya Vati had a dinner, quadril dinner. So what exactly happened after that? The alliance didn't work out in UP. What went wrong? Nothing went wrong. BJP, the BSP and the SP felt that it was advantages for them to fight together. And they didn't want the Congress as part of that alliance. I've told my sister and I've told Mrs Sonia that where we are winning, absolutely fight for the Congress. Where we are not coming first or second, support the SPBSP alliance. Made it very clear. But Akhilesh Yadav has alleged that, you know, Congress is actually trying to help the Bhartya Janta Party in UP. I don't think anybody would ever say that the Congress party is trying to help. I mean, if we were trying to help the BJP, I mean, do you heard my speech? Do you hear any other, do you hear others talking with the aggression that I talk about Mr Narendra Modi? We are ideologically against Mr Narendra Modi. We are going to defeat Mr Narendra Modi in this election. And you've also said in the past that, you know, Priyanka Gandhi Varda is going to play a longer innings for the UP election. So, is she going to be your Chief Minister candidate or will we see her more in national politics? I've told both Mr Sindhya and Priyanka that they have three goals. They have three goals. Goal number one is in the Lok Sabha to defeat the BJP and its ideology. Goal number two is to spread the Congress ideology of love equality in Uttar Pradesh. And number three is win the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. That's their mission. Talking about love, you have been responding in a very graceful... I'm being called. So, I'll have to answer. So, you have been talking about love and hugs. You gave him a hug in the parliament. I sent him a hug by Twitter also. In one of the rallies recently in Kurukshetra, of course, whatever you said, the point went home because he was extremely upset about this Prem Ki Dictionary and he went on to give a list of about 20 garlands that the congressman had given him. And he says, if this is his Prem Ki Dictionary, then I don't know. No, I mean, look, there are millions of people in the congress party. And yes, sometimes they say things that are out of line. And when they do it, I take action. Manishankar Iyer said something that was out of line. I took action. And we are very strict on that. But not one of those things that he mentioned was said by me. Not one of those things that he mentioned was said by me. I do say, it is a bit impolite, but the fact of the matter is that the Prime Minister has stolen money and helped Anil Ambani get 30,000 rupees. I'm still searching for a more polite way of saying thief. I don't know if you have a more polite way of saying it. I will find it and I will use it. So, I do say, it has now become a nara in the election. But Mr. Modi does not generate hate in me. He does not generate anger in me. I certainly generate hatred in Mr. Narendra Modi. I certainly generate anger in him. And whatever anger and hatred he has towards me, he can give me. I will embrace it and I will give him love in it. But then why did you apologize in the Supreme Court about the Chowkadaar Chaur? I apologize for a very technical reason. I attributed the nara Chowkadaar Chaur to the Supreme Court, which frankly is not correct. That is wrong because there is a process going on and the Supreme Court has not decided. So, I prejudged the Supreme Court and for that I apologize. But in no way have I apologized for saying Chowkadaar Chaur. I will say it again right in your camera if you focus on me. So, I don't apologize for that because that is a fact, that is true. And I believe in saying what is true. There's a lot of criticism about dynasty politics, but you remain the main target even called Shahzada by the PM. How do you see that? I mean it's interesting, the last time I said it in an interview a few days back, the last time a family member of mine was, Prime Minister was in 1989, 30 years ago. You know, almost 30 years ago. Manmohan Singh Ji was Prime Minister. Two terms. Pivin Narasimha Rao Ji was Prime Minister. So, I don't understand. Mr. Narendra Modi has an obsession with my family. He's got an obsession with it. He's more obsessed with my family than I am. He probably says my father's name more than I do. I don't know, it's obviously some issue that he's got. But that's not really my problem. That's not really my problem. You know, I mean if the Prime Minister wants to carry hatred around and you know, be angry, that's his problem. I'm not going to get affected by it. I look, I'm smiling, I'm happy, I'm having a nice time. All through the campaign, don't you think, don't you even feel, don't you feel that somewhere, don't you think that there's some, the toxicity of this campaign, this entire campaign, the way the elections have been run, don't you succumb to it? That, you know, that we should also have a more aggressive campaign. No, no, no. If you have, if you have hatred towards me, it's your problem. It's not my problem. It only becomes my problem when I accept it. You call me names, you abuse me. Has no impact on me at all. It's an idea in your head. Until it becomes an idea in my head is not a problem for me. So I refuse to make Narendra Modi's hatred a problem, an idea in my head. In my head it's very simple. I love all the people of India. I want to work with the people of India. I am absolutely convinced that the people of India understand best what is for India. What is best for India? I listen to the people of India. I listen deeply to what they say and I try and help construct what they would like. But there are some reports that have come that, you know, Niai as much as you would have liked, it has not resonated amongst the people. Is that a valid... Did you hear the crowd when I said Niai? Did you hear the crowd when I said 72,000, 360,000? I mean, I don't know if you're getting your information from Niai. In fact, I was sitting on the stage and Mr. Bansal said Niai has won him the election. He said it's over. He says Niai has gone everywhere. So I don't know where you're getting that from. I got a run. Love me talking to you. But one question that you've always curtered is your marriage. So what do you remain? I've got a run now. Thank you. We can't help asking that. We can't help asking that. I'll start it again. Thank you.