Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 7: Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the country’s data resources have been essentially handed over to the US post its trade deal with India, and said issues such as this were being not discussed while the debate surrounded on what one eats and drinks.
In a free-wheeling chat with the Information Technology (IT) Fraternity at Technopark here, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also sought for a debate on freebies, wondering why such largesse to the poor was seen as wrong but it was not the case with “Adani, Ambani.”
Fielding queries on data protection, he touched upon the Indo-US trade deal, of which he has been critical.
He said that if India had said that its data was the most valuable in the world, there would have been no taxes on agriculture or on small and medium businesses.
“I mean, if in that deal, India turned around and said, listen, this is all fine, but our data is the most valuable data in the world, I can guarantee you there will be no taxes on agriculture. There would be no taxes on small and medium business. There would be none of that.”
He said that when going into a negotiation, one has to know what one has.
“We have a huge diversity. So, we can understand many different things from many different angles. We have the largest pile of data on this planet. We have the best engineering talent. We have the best medical talent.”
He said that if Russia hands over its entire oil reserves to the US, there will be a lot of hue and cry there.
But, there was “not a peep” in India when its data was “handed over” to the US as part of the deal signed by the government, he claimed.
He said that one of the central questions that politics of India need to discuss is how to utilise data that is the country’s biggest resource, what is its nature, who has access to it and at what cost.
“These are the questions actually the political system should be discussing. Not whether, you know, what we should eat and what we should drink and whether cow urine is good for you. So, it is actually a democratic exercise. It’s a listening exercise, because really nobody has the answer,” Rahul said.
On freebies, he was asked why they were still being given by political parties after nearly 80 years of independence.
He asked why were there no discussions about the freebies given to Adani and Ambani, an apparent reference to the top Indian industrialists.
“What about freebies to Mr Adani and Mr Ambani? What about the huge amount of land given to them? Why don’t we discuss that? If we are ready to stop those freebies, we can stop these freebies (to the poor),” Gandhi said.
Later, in a Facebook post, he said that when the poor receive subsidies to survive, it is called “revdi” and “freebies”.
“When Adani and Ambani receive land at throwaway prices, tax exemptions, and lakhs of crores in loan write-offs – it’s called development. The poor are shamed. The powerful are celebrated. I am open to a conversation about freebies – but let’s be honest and account for both sides of the equation,” Rahul said in his post.
He said that people should realise that the freebies given to the poor are a reaction to incidents like forgiving huge loans of Adani and Ambani.
“The poor people need freebies and you see that. But, you do not see the freebies when Adani gets it. Your question was not when are we going to stop freebies to Adani and Ambani. So, when you are looking at a political system, you have got to look at both sides of the equation. If we are going to have a conversation about freebies, then lets not talk about just one side of the equation,” the LoP said.
To a question on China, he said the neighbour has built a “superb and unmatched” industrial system in the world, but was “coercive and undemocratic”.
China has captured the industrial production side while the US, India and most of the world were “playing in the consumption space”.
According to him, the real jobs were in the industrial production sector and not the consumption side, like the IT sector.
“The disappointing thing is that we have allowed China to just capture it (industrial production),” he said.
“China has built a superb industrial system that is unmatched in the world. But we do not like their coercive system. We do not like the fact that they are not democratic,” he added.
He said that if India can build an industrial production system while maintaining the country’s democratic values, “it would be a huge service to the people of India and the world”.
The Congress MP also said that if he was not in politics, he would probably be doing some entrepreneurship in the aerospace world.
On a two-day visit to the southern state, Gandhi visited the Sivagiri Mutt at Varkala.
He also interacted with women tea pluckers at an estate in Peerumade.
Accompanied by Congress MPs K C Venugopal and Dean Kuriakose, Gandhi spoke to the workers and enquired about their wages and the tea plucking process.
The women workers explained to the Congress leader the nature of their work and showed him how the tea-plucking machine is used.
