Some of the management students of NMIMS College were apparently not too happy with the diplomatic stance that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi adopted while replying to their questions during his
Some of the management students of NMIMS College were apparently not too happy with the diplomatic stance that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi adopted while replying to their questions during his 40-minute interaction with them. The venue of the interaction between Mr Gandhi and the students also saw some students from Mithibai College across the road raise Modi chants, due to which the police had to intervene.
Speaking about the opportunity to pose a question to Mr Gandhi, Mukti Manoo, a first year student. said that she was expecting Mr Gandhi to be more forthcoming in his reply rather than being very elaborate. “Being management students we were expecting him to give straight answers to our questions. Though his answers were very convincing, we expected him to be more to the point and explain his party’s stand on the issue in clear terms,” said Ms Manoo.
Another student, Abhinav Unnikrishnan, who asked a question on censorship and the current scenario of intolerance, said he was happy with Mr Gandhi’s criticism of the BJP-RSS ideology to divide the people on religious lines. “Mr Gandhi needs to be more aggressive on these issues as the corporate world has no place for intolerance or discrimination on religious lines. As future managers we expect a more conducive atmosphere wherein people are identified by their skills and not religion. I am glad he addressed the issue,” said Mr Unnikrishnan.
Those who did not get a chance to pose questions said they were satisfied by the answers of Mr Gandhi but said that they were not expecting him to give any controversial answers. “After his Bengaluru gaffe, we were not expecting him to give an answer that would put him in an embarrassing situation,” said Anuraj Brahmi who felt that the interaction should have been longer.
Meanwhile, a major scuffle was averted by the police between two groups namely the pro-Gandhi and pro-Modi group. According to a member of the Nationalist Student Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of Congress some students who were standing in the campus of Mithibai College across the road started chanting Mr Modi’s name when Mr Gandhi reached the venue. Soon after he entered the venue some people rushed to the gate of Mithibai College but were restrained in time by the police.
“Had the people managed to rush into the Mithibai campus, all hell would have broken lose,” said the member requesting anonymity.
