NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday shared a video of his interaction with students at IIT Madras, calling the need for India to prioritise quality education through government support rather than privatisation. “I feel that a country needs to guarantee quality education to its people. And I don’t think that the best way to guarantee quality education to our people is to privatize everything,” he said.
The BJP, dismissed Gandhi’s remarks, calling them “sermons through choreographed videos” and pointing to significant educational reforms under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Rahul Gandhi’s definition of success
In the video, Gandhi engaged with students on various topics, starting with how they define success. Responses ranged from personal fulfilment to societal betterment. One student remarked, “Success is helping yourself grow and that leads to the growth of others.” Gandhi observed that no one initially mentioned money, to which a student replied, “Success includes care, development, and financial growth.”
Sharing his perspective, Gandhi said, “I would define success as someone who observes their surroundings accurately and manoeuvres around them efficiently. It includes dealing with fear, greed, and anger.”
The conversation also touched on national priorities. Gandhi contrasted Congress’s focus on equitable resource distribution with the BJP’s emphasis on trickle-down growth. “In the Congress and the UPA, we generally believe that the resources should be distributed more fairly, BJP they are more aggressive on growth and they tend to believe that you can focus resources, they believe on what is in economic terms called trickle down,” he said.
‘Country needs to guarantee quality education to its people’
A key topic of discussion was education reform. Responding to concerns about declining enrolment and inadequate standards, Gandhi called for increased public funding. “The best institutions in our country are government institutions, yours being one of them,” he told the students.
He criticised the education system for being restrictive and overly focused on a narrow set of professions like engineering and medicine.
“Success as far as our education system is concerned is if you’re an engineer or a doctor, you join the ias, IPS or then you get into the forces. And really that’s just going to be 1% of our population, maximum 2. 90% of our population is never going to do this.”
“So the whole thing is geared towards this 1 or 2% who are going to become engineers, doctors, and then poor fellows, when they don’t succeed, then they are, you know, they’re depressed and they’re upset that I couldn’t make it. But really it’s impossible for 90% of India to become engineers and doctors,” he said.
BJP’s hits back
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya criticised Gandhi’s comments, citing UPA’s track record. “Between 2004-2014, under the UPA, central and state education expenditure was just 3.1% of GDP, far below the recommended 6%,” he said. Malviya contrasted this with the Modi government’s achievements, including nearly doubling education funding from Rs 79,451 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1.48 lakh crore in 2024-25.
He highlighted initiatives like the establishment of new IITs, IIMs, and universities, and the introduction of the National Education Policy. “A record 71 Indian universities now feature in global rankings, and enrolment among Scheduled Tribe and OBC students has seen significant growth,” Malviya added.
