‘Rahul Gandhi is a living Buddha’, says Indian-American entrepreneur

Rahul Gandhi has a deep understanding of technology, an Indian-American entrepreneur said who hosted the Congress leader for a meeting with Silicon Valley startups.

"He never claims that he knows everything. ...but he is always curious. (During the meeting) he expressed his kind of limitation on different subjects, but he always shows his appetite for the technology," said Shan Sankaran, founder of FixNix, a Silicon Valley-based startup that provides a cloud-based platform for simplifying GRC-related (governance, risk, compliance) decision-making.

During the event, Gandhi told the audience he tries to emulate his father and ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi in the adoption of technology in various sectors including banking.

Sankaran said that Gandhi is seeing how innovation can further fuel development and growth. Gandhi indicated that he is in favour of regulating technologies rather than banning them, Gandhi added.

Speaking about Rahul Gandhi's personality, the US-based entrepreneur said, "I will call him Buddha...I will call him Buddha. He's a living Buddha. So, I think he's not behind any of these fancy designations. He could have become prime minister when they had that majority. He could have become prime minister twice. He never became the prime minister. Not a single soul in Congress would've objected in case he wanted to become prime minister. He never chooses to," he said.

"I think, he's a guy personally I see as a role model for the future generations to adopt. In fact, when he's now thrown out of his home which he had as a member of parliament, he doesn't have a single iota of hatred against Modi," he said.

"He is a great Buddha and he follows Dhamma for that matter. In many private interactions, what I found is he has very deep knowledge in many subjects not just technology," he said.

Sankaran has 17 provisional patents in his name. "I moved here to build my future dreams, continue to innovate more, see how my innovation can help society," he said.