New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the DNA of openness and tolerance that India and the US were known for has "disappeared", and those creating divisions and weakening their country are now claiming to be nationalists.
He also attacked the current dispensation saying an "atmosphere of fear" is prevailing in India with a "unilateral, episodic" leadership at the helm, which is proving to be "destructive".
The former Congress chief was in conversation with former US diplomat and now Harvard professor Nicholas Burns, as part of a series of dialogues initiated by him to address the challenges the world is facing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gandhi said the Indo-US partnership works because the two countries have tolerant systems, but that level of tolerance, which was seen before, is not being seen now in both the countries.
"Our DNA is supposed to be tolerant. We're supposed to accept new ideas. We're supposed to be open, but the surprising thing is that DNA, that open DNA, is sort of disappeared. I mean, I say this with sadness that I don't see that level of tolerance that I used to see. I don't see it in the United States and I don't see it in India," Gandhi observed.
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