Students find Rahul wanting

In what was pitched as an event to get a feedback from the country’s student community, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi sure made an impact. Not by stealing the limelight, but leaving scores of youngsters disappointed.

“He sounded like an amateur, and naive in his responses. But he did generate the ‘oohs and aahs’ and showed his Shehzada image by sitting amid a tight security and mingling with VIPs,” said Shriya and Sheroshee, students of Mount Carmel College, after the event here on Saturday.

The interaction, titled “Agenda for Change: Education and Nation Building”, saw Gandhi interact with 640 students at the Central College grounds in Bangalore and scores of others through webcast from six cities across the country. The webcast, according to those present in the venue, saw students from Delhi, Pune, Sriperumbudur, Bhubaneswar, Mohali, Allahabad and Kolkata asking questions. The media was not allowed at the interaction.

Gandhi was quizzed on pointed issues like increasing the number of IITs. He said the government would look at upgrading the existing IITs and not try to increase their numbers, as it would not be a useful move. He said the future of the country’s education lay not in strengthening the higher education sector but ensuring education to every child in rural areas. He spoke about the benefits of RTE and the need for educated women to enter politics.

Engineering students Sahana and Spoorthi said Gandhi was of the view that women should join politics, and the government favoured 33 per cent reservation in Lok Sabha.
A disheartened Pallavi of SKJIT questioned Gandhi’s intention of hosting the interaction after 10 years of the Congress being in power. “The order of questioning was
premeditated,” said Manoj Singh P of Vijaya College.