More power to the people, advocates Rahul

"I am inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Any conflict can be resolved through discussions, love and peace. So that is my answer," Gandhi said when asked if the Armed Forces Special Powers Act would be withdrawn from Manipur where it was responsible for social disharmonies affecting women and students.

"You cannot solve problems without discussing them and by using force against these people. They must have the power to do what they want to for charting out their own destiny and fulfilling their dreams. So more power to youngsters and the people," he said during an interaction with students in Don Bosco University.

"I am really confident that the problem in Manipur like the problem in Assam can be resolved and will be resolved soon," Rahul said.

"There are two competing ideas when it comes to governance. One idea promotes governance in a centralised manner by one person. Another idea says governance should be done by giving as much power to the people as possible," Rahul said.

"I think a lot of the conflicts that take place in our country occur because we have not spread power to the people enough. If you came to Assam 20 years ago, Assam was much in conflict. You had a conflict in Assam then and you noticed that the conflict has disappeared over the last 20 years," he said.

"How did this conflict go away? We actually included people in discussion. We embraced people, brought people in and discussed with them what their problems are," Gandhi added.

"Besides connectivity, the other problem is that northeastern people going to the rest of the country are not comfortable because they are sometimes treated badly, particularly women. So, these are the two areas that we really need to focus on," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader also advocated change in the education system and the way it is designed to make it more student based. Educational institutions should be given more support, be a network and be committed to the rest of the country.

"Educational institutions have to be connected to the industry, the legal system. Look at a modern university... it is much more like a network than like a simple teaching institution", Gandhi said.

"The education system should be centred around students. The system should be centred to make the teacher comfortable, to train the teacher to teach and the student to be comfortable with what they are taught. We should do what ever we can to make it easier for the students to take an exam," he added.