Don't go after me, everybody in India is a dynast: Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on 12 September hit back at those who have accused him of reaping the benefits of "dynasty politics", and justified the charges against him, saying that the entire nation is running on it and hence, one should not go only after him.

Responding to a poser at the University of California in Berkeley, Rahul didn't even spare the Ambanis and the Bachchans and said that in every field, there are numerous dynasts.

"Most of the country runs like this. Akhilesh Yadav is a dynast. Stalin is a dynast. Dhumal's son a dynast. Even Abhishek Bachchan is a dynast. Also Mr. Ambani. That's how India runs. Don't go after me," he said here.

Rahul even said that there are many people in the party, who are not a part of the dynasty politics.

"The real question is if a person is capable. Is the person sensitive?" he added.

Interestingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has always accused the Congress of running a dynasty politics and has always referred Rahul as the 'Yuvraj' or the prince.

Rahul further hit at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the demonetisation drive and said that ignoring India's tremendous institutions of knowledge and taking ad hoc decision are reckless and dangerous.

"Decisions like demonetisation taken without asking the Chief Economic Advisor and the Parliament caused a tremendous damage. The kind of economic growth today is worrying and is leading to upsurge of anger in the country," he said.

"The Government's economic policy of demonetisation and hastily implemented the GST has caused a tremendous pressure on the economy," he added.

Referring the small and medium enterprises as the bedrock of India's economic progress, Rahul said that millions of businesses were simply wiped out as a result of the Prime Minister's decision.

"Prime Minister Modi clamped down on the RTI. He shut it down. We got in trouble as we dramatically increased the transparency," he said.

Rahul further alleged the BJP of running a campaign and spreading 'abuses' against him.

"There is a BJP machine - about 1,000 guys sitting on computers and telling you about me. Tremendous machine. All day they spread abuse about me and the operation is run by the 'gentleman' [PM Modi], who is running our country," he alleged.

Rahul also praised Prime Minsiter Modi's communication skills saying that the latter "knows how to give a message to three-four different groups in a crowd, so his messaging ability is very effective and subtle."

"What I sense is he doesn't converse with people he works with, even members of the Parliament and the BJP tell me that," he added.

Discussing the working of the party, Rahul said that the Congress decides policy and vision through conversations and not by imposition.

He also asserted that he is ready to take up the executive role, but the party works according to 'organisational elections.'

-ANI