BJP Completely Disincentivised Manufacturing in India: Rahul Gandhi
Criticising the BJP-led central government, Gandhi alleged that current policies have discouraged manufacturing and concentrated economic power among a few large corporate groups
New Delhi: The Congress party on Tuesday shared a video of leader Rahul Gandhi from his visit to a BMW factory in Germany, where he spoke about the global shift in mobility, India’s manufacturing potential, and the need for a new growth model centred on production and jobs.
In the video posted on X, Gandhi noted that the automobile giant was navigating the transition from internal combustion engines to electric mobility, a shift he said is transforming industries worldwide.
Pointing to China’s rapid progress in electric vehicles, Gandhi said the change in mobility has given Beijing a significant competitive advantage. He added that countries like India, which are still building large-scale infrastructure, have an opportunity to pursue an alternative development path.
“Look at what China has done in electric vehicles. Using a different form of mobility, they now have a huge competitive advantage. So for countries like ours, where we have a lot of infrastructure to build, and we have large scale, we can actually do quite interesting things,” he said.
Criticising the BJP-led central government, Gandhi alleged that current policies have discouraged manufacturing and concentrated economic power among a few large corporate groups. He argued that manufacturing is the only way to generate jobs at scale in India.
He further claimed that major corporate houses are more focused on trading rather than production, resulting in heavy dependence on imports, particularly from China. He said many goods used in India are manufactured in China, which he described as a concern for the country.
“There is only one way that you can produce jobs at scale for a country like India and that is manufacturing,” Gandhi said while addressing a gathering at the Hertie School in Berlin. He added that India has the capability, population, and cost structure needed to become a major manufacturing hub.
Calling for a new growth model, Gandhi said India’s development strategy must prioritise production while upholding democratic values, environmental responsibility, and social inclusion.
“What does the next model of Indian growth look like? It has to have production. It has to have a production that occurs in a democratic environment. It has to have a vision for the environment and for the more marginalised sections of society, but it also has to create prosperity,” he said.