Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP were incapable of talking about the future. They only talk about the past by blaming others. Taking a dig at Modi, he said the PM “is trying to drive a car by looking at the rear-view mirror”.

“BJP and RSS are incapable of looking into the future. They never talk about the future. They only talk about the past. They will always blame somebody else for the past. He (PM) is trying to drive the car… the Indian car and he looks in the rear-view mirror. Then, he does not understand why this car is crashing, not moving forward. And it’s the same idea with BJP, with RSS. All of them. You listen to the ministers, you listen to the prime minister. You will never find them talking about the future. They only talk about the past,” Gandhi said while addressing a gathering of the Indian diaspora, according to reports from the venue.

According to him, the fight in India is between the ideologies of the Congress and RSS-BJP, and that of Gandhi Vs Godse. “The simplest way to describe this fight is that on one side you have Mahatma Gandhi and on the other side, Nathuram Godse,” he said.

BJP hit back at Gandhi for his remarks. “Rather than commenting on Prime Minister Modi, Rahul Gandhi should go back and look towards his grandmother Indira Gandhi. She never mocked her own country and leaders on trips abroad. It is better for Rahul Gandhi to think before he speaks. It will do good to him as well as the country,” BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, told ET.

Gandhi also praised the Indian-American community. “All the giants that have emerged from India, you can see that there were certain qualities that all of them possessed. Firstly, they searched for, represented and fought for the truth. Secondly, all these people were humble, and there was no arrogance in them. That is how Indians have worked in the US, and that’s why Indians are successful here.” Referring to the Odisha train accident, he recalled how a railway minister in a past Congress government resigned after a railway accident.