We are giving too much importance to Pak: Rahul

Shimla: Pakistan doesn't deserve "half the importance" it was being given in India, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday while stressing that the two countries could not be compared.

"We are giving too much importance to Pakistan. It is just a small piece of land. India can't be compared with Pakistan," Rahul told reporters in Shimla.

He was on a day-long visit to the hill state to woo students for the party's student wing - the National Students Union of India (NSUI).

"Pakistan's internal issues do affect us, but we are giving too much time and importance to Pakistan in our minds. To my mind, it deserves not half the importance we are giving it," he said.

"If you see, the attitude of the world has changed towards Pakistan. It's not a one day job. It's a long process. India has created pressure (on it) and the entire world is putting pressure on Pakistan. Certain issues related to Pakistan have to be managed, which is already being done. We are on a comfortable position. There is no comparison between India and Pakistan," he added.

Taking a dig at opposition parties, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said, "It has 1,000 year old ideology. They are just talking about Jinnah (Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah), which is history now. I can't think about Jinnah even for five seconds... not for one second.

"The BJP's 'India Shining' slogan was outrightly rejected during the 2004 general elections. India was shining only in urban areas and that too within the elite class."

Dressed casually in a blue half-sleeve shirt and trousers, he said: "We believe in the ideology of uplift of the poor and the downtrodden."

He brushed aside criticism about his visits to villages, saying they were intended to get first-hand information about the progress the country has made.

Rahul admitted that the doors of political parties, be it the Congress, the BJP or any other, were not as open to youngsters as they should be.

"My effort is just to do that. The youth wants to know what we are going to give them in the years to come."

The Congress leader said his main job was to bring more democracy in the frontal organisations of the party, the Youth Congress and the NSUI.

"My effort is to have all elected people in these two organisations ultimately. No nominations in future. But it will take some time... the process is on and we have already done it in four states for the Youth Congress," he said.

Rahul later interacted with students at the Himachal Pradesh University.