From BJP's machine, Modi to Kashmir here are highlights of Rahul Gandhi's US speech

We have 29 states, covering every religion in the world. We have 17 official languages and hundreds of dialects.

The idea of non-violence is under attack today said Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi. He was addressing the University of California, Berkeley.

The purpose of the visit is two-fold. One is to meet interesting and global thinkers, to have a conversation on what is happening world over on economy, on technology, on opportunities, and really understand different views from experts on the global scene."

Here are the highlights:

• On demonetisation: The decision was carried out unilaterally. Millions of jobs were wiped out because of the cash ban, he adds. Demonetisation caused approximately 2 per cent loss of the GDP.
• The central challenge for India is jobs, adding that roughly 12 million youth enter the job market annually. "Unlike China, we have to create jobs in a democratic environment," he said. "Jobs in India will come from small and medium scale industries. However, currently, all the attention is paid to the top 100 companies."
• By 2012, arrogance had crept into the Congress party. We stopped having conversations with people.
• The politics of polarisation has raised its ugly head in India today. "This is dangerous as it isolates people and makes them vulnerable to radical ideas."
• There's no democratic country in human history which has lift so many people out of poverty, Rahul Gandhi said. This was done without violence.
• Using violence against a person, who is infected by an idea, actually ensures the idea spreads further.
• We have 29 states, covering every religion in the world. We have 17 official languages and hundreds of dialects. We have different terrains too. Most experts didn't expect India to survive; they predicted it will be torn apart. But India came out standing straight and tall."
• There is a BJP machine, about 1,000 guys sitting on computers and all day spread abuse about me. This operation is being run by the gentleman who runs the country.
• For nine years on Kashmir issue I worked behind the scenes with Dr Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh.
• When we started out, terrorism was rampant in Kashmir. When we finished there was peace and we have broken their back. By 2013 we had basically broken the back of terror. I hugged the then PM, Dr. Singh and told him it was one of the biggest achievements.
• PDP in Kashmir was instrumental in bringing youth into politics. However the day Prime Minister Modi formed the alliance with the PDP, he destroyed them. Modi massively opened up space for terrorists in Kashmir and you saw the increase in violence he also said.

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