Rahul Gandhi and Nicholas Burns discuss George Floyd's death and India-US relations

Continuing with his talks with experts ranging from economy to politics, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on June 12, spoke with former United States diplomat Nicholas Burns and delved on raging topics such as changing nature of India-US relations, and the custodial death of African American George Floyd.

Burns dubbed Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis “horrific” and recalled how Martin Luther King Junior fought “peaceful and non-violent battles” just like Mahatma Gandhi. He then went on to point out that despite the last US President Barack Obama being an African American, racism is resurging in the country.

Commenting on the “Black Lives Matter” protests, he said, “Millions of Americans are protesting peacefully as is our right. And yet, the President (Donald Trump) treats them like terrorists”.

Burns also said, “At the core, what kind of nation are we? We are an immigrant nation, a tolerant nation.”

They discussed the “open DNA” and tolerance that the two greatest democracies in the world were known for. Rahul Gandhi also pointed out about the changing dynamics of the India-US relationship, which was once “very broad”, but now revolves mainly around defence.

In the video chat with Burns, Rahul said, “I think why our (India and US) partnership works is because we are tolerant systems. You mentioned you are an immigrant nation. We are a very tolerant nation. Our DNA is supposed to be tolerant. But the surprising thing is that the open DNA has sort of disappeared. I don't see that level of tolerance that I used to see in US and India.”

Notably, the Gandhi scion has been holding discussions with experts coming from varied disciplines and backgrounds since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease in India. Prior to this, he has interacted with former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, epidemiologist Johann Giesceke, and industrialist Rajiv Bajaj.