Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, saying they never speak of the future and instead blame others in the past for their failings.

Gandhi, who is on a visit to the United States, was speaking to members of the Indian diaspora at the Javits Center in New York. They observed a 60-second silence in memory of those killed in the Odisha train crash.

The disaster involving three trains killed at least 280 people and highlighted the issue of railway safety. Some people have called for the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

”I remember a train accident when the Congress was in power. The Congress did not get up and say ‘now it is the fault of the British that the train has crashed’. The Congress minister said ‘it’s my responsibility and I’m resigning’. So this is the problem we have back home, we make excuses and we are not accepting the reality we are faced with,” Gandhi said, without naming the Congress minister.

He said the BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking into the future. ”He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) 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 the BJP, with the 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,” he said.

”The BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking into the future. They never talk about the future; they only talk about the past. And they will always blame somebody else for the past,” he said.

He said there is a fight going on back in India between two ideologies — one represented by the Congress and the other by the BJP and the RSS.

”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.

He also lauded the way that the Indian-American community has lived in the US.

”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. I respect and honour you for that.”

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