Rahul Gandhi is on a week-long tour of the United Kingdom (File)
London:
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi focused his lecture at the prestigious Cambridge University on the “art of listening” and called for a new way of thinking to promote a democratic environment globally, as opposed to a coercive one.
Referring to the decline in manufacturing in democracies like India and the US in recent years, Rahul Gandhi said this change has created massive inequality and anger that needs immediate attention and dialogue.
The opposition Member of Parliament, who is a visiting fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School (Cambridge JBS), on Tuesday evening delivered a lecture to students at the university on the topic ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st Century’.
Rahul Gandhi, 52, said, “We cannot afford a planet that does not produce under a democratic system.”
“So, we need a new thinking about how do you produce in a democratic environment as compared to a coercive environment… a conversation about this,” he added.
Cambridge JBS said that Rahul Gandhi’s lecture to MBA students revolved around the importance of people around the world finding a way to compassionately listen to new concerns in the 21st century, which are far from democratic countries producing changed by the change of The “art of listening”, when practiced consistently and diligently, is “very powerful”.
The lecture was divided into three major parts, beginning with an outline of the Bharat Jodo Yatra—a nearly 4,000-kilometer walking tour Gandhi planned from September 2022 to January 2020 to draw attention to “prejudice, unemployment and growing inequality in India”. done in 12 states by 2023.
The second part of the lecture focused on the “two different approaches” of the US and China since World War II, especially after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Rahul Gandhi said that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, America had become less open besides eliminating manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, he said, China “idolizes harmony” through organization around the Chinese Communist Party.
The final aspect of his lecture revolved around the theme of “the imperative for a global conversation”, as he weaved together the various aspects in a call for a new kind of receptivity to diverse viewpoints.
He also explained to the Cambridge University student assembly that “travel” is a journey or pilgrimage in which people “shut themselves off so that they may listen to others”.
Kamal Munir, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Professor of Strategy and Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School, Rahul Gandhi was introduced to a Cambridge MBA student audience as a member of a “long lineage of global leaders”. Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was also an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, the Cambridge Judge Chair in Indian Business and Enterprise is named after him. His father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was also a Cambridge alumnus, as is Rahul Gandhi himself.
Cambridge JBS said its MBA program is aimed at globally-minded, successful individuals who want to understand the complexities of business and society and thanked Gandhi for sharing “his experiences and insights on global economics and policy making”. expressed.
Rahul Gandhi is on a week-long visit to the UK and is scheduled to hold closed-door sessions at Cambridge University on Big Data and Democracy and India-China relations. Later in the week, he will interact with representatives of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter and also address the “Indian Diaspora Convention” planned over the weekend in London.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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