After the Berkeley speech did wonders for Rahul Gandhi's image, he rained on his own parade by yet another foot-in-the-mouth statement, making one wonder if the Congress vice-president's gaffes would ever end.
Gandhi, during an interaction with NRIs, said leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru were NRIs who returned to India to transform the country.
He was addressing the overseas Indians at the iconic Times Square on Wednesday at the end of a two-week-long speaking tour of the United States.
"The original Congress movement was an NRI movement. Mahatma Gandhi was an NRI, Jawaharlal Nehru came back from England. (BR) Ambedkar, (Abul Kalam) Azad, (Sardar) Patel they were all NRIs," he told a select gathering.
"Every single one of them went to the outside world, saw the outside world, returned to India and used some of the ideas that they had got and transformed India," he said, adding that father of the White Revolution in India, Verghese Kurien, was also an NRI.
"You have tremendous knowledge and understanding so you need to involve. I want to invite you to work with Congress to discuss vision for going forward. We want to take your help."
"Everywhere you look, there is an Indian working for US and India, building both countries," he said, courting a community that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had wooed at several big-ticket public rallies in the past, Hindustan Times reported.
"NRIs in the tradition of the great NRIs before them should stand up to those dividing India now," he added.
