Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been tasked to revive Congress in eastern Uttar Pradesh, would have a role beyond the country’s most-populous state, party president Rahul Gandhi told Hindustan Times in an interview.

The Congress’s brand new general secretary, Vadra, formally entered politics last month in a move reflecting the party's intent to go full throttle in the state ahead of the general elections.

She took over her new assignment in the politically crucial state -- a Congress bastion till the mid 1980s -- from this week.

“As a general secretary of the party, she has, by definition, a national role,” Rahul Gandhi said in the interview.

“As Congress president, I am keen that the party is revived in UP, Bihar, Bengal and Tamil Nadu,” he said, while acknowledging that it wasn’t going to be an easy task.“That’s quite a big job – it’s not a small job. I am reorienting the Congress party towards successful completion of jobs. I give a job, and then I give another job based on the success of that job,” he said.

Here are the excerpts from an interview with Hindustan Times:

On Modi Government

Rahul Gandhi said in his “15 years of political career”, he has not seen “the type of Opposition unity” that exists today.

“If I

On The Agrarian Crisis And Jobs

“Agriculture has no magic wand. It needs a comprehensive and composite policy and strategic intervention.” First generation Green Revolution policies don’t work anymore, especially because of globalisation, he explained.

On jobs, he said, “you are not going to get jobs from the 15-20 biggest industrialists in the country. You will generate jobs from unleashing the huge potential of micro, small and medium businesses”.

On RSS

“If somebody is unfair to the biggest industrialists in the country, I will be the first person to try and make it fair… where I draw the line is when somebody in India is violent against somebody else. That’s my main issue with the RSS - you are spreading hatred and violence… I will fight you for it.”

On Demand For A Ram Temple

“It would not be fair for me to opine as the highest court in the country is deliberating on it,” he said. “I would say that what the Supreme Court decides is what the Congress and everyone will accept.”

On Rafale Deal

“I know that there is something wrong” about the Rafale deal, he said, adding that if his party came to power, it would ask experts on military aircraft, and defence purchases, to look into the deal.