Congress President Rahul Gandhi at Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg, Germany

Addressing a gathering at the Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg in Germany, the Congress president said the BJP government has excluded tribals, Dalits and minorities from the development narrative and “this could be a dangerous thing”.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited the example of Islamic State terrorist group to say that exclusion of a large number of people from the development process could lead to the creation of insurgent groups anywhere in the world.

Addressing a gathering at the Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg in Germany, Gandhi said the BJP government has excluded tribals, Dalits and minorities from the development narrative and “this could be a dangerous thing”.

“It is very dangerous in the 21st century to exclude people,” he said.

“If you don’t give people a vision in the 21st century, somebody else will. And that’s the real risk of excluding a large number of people from the development process,” Gandhi said.

He also linked the incidents of lynching in India to joblessness and the lack of opportunities for the poor who, he said, were not being given equal opportunities.

Gandhi said the incidents of lynching were a result of the anger emanating from joblessness and destruction of small businesses due to demonetisation and poorly implemented Goods and Services Tax.

The Congress president addressed the gathering for more than an hour. He also took questions from students from across the world.

During his address, Gandhi said that after the US attacked Iraq in 2003, they brought a law that stopped a particular tribe in Iraq from getting jobs in the government and in the army.

“It seemed like a very innocuous decision at that time,” he said.

But it resulted in a large number of people joining insurgency “that fought the US and caused massive casualties,” he said.

“It didn’t end there. That insurgence slowly entered empty spaces. It entered the empty space in Iraq and in Syria and then it connected with...a horrific idea called ISIS,” Gandhi said.

He said there is a lot of hatred in the world but not enough people are listening. The only solution, he added, was to understand people.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised Gandhi and suggested that he had crossed the line by bringing up IS in the Indian context.

“Horrified to hear Congress President RahulG justifying the formation of ISIS in Syria ..and giving out a veiled threat that if Modiji doesn’t “give vision” to India then soon someone else (read ISIS) would give the vision..Unbelievable ..He’s a PM aspirant??” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted.