‘I’d have been an aerospace entrepreneur if not come to politics,’ says Rahul Gandhi

: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he might have pursued a career in the aerospace sector if he had not become a full-time politician.

Speaking during an interaction with the IT fraternity at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday (March 7, 2026), he said, “If I weren’t working for a political organisation, I would probably be doing some sort of entrepreneurship, most likely in the aerospace world. I’m a pilot, and my father was a pilot, and my uncle was a pilot,” he said, referring to his family’s connection with aviation.

Mr. Gandhi also emphasised the importance of physical exercise for maintaining health and productivity. According to him, many people underestimate how essential regular workouts are for efficiency and well-being in life. “Exercise is something many of us probably lack. People often think they are saving an hour by skipping exercise, but in reality they lose more time because they become inefficient, stressed and disturbed,” he said. Recalling a personal memory, Mr. Gandhi spoke about his grandmother’s disciplined routine. He said that whenever he visited her room in the morning, he would always see her exercising.

“She had a yellow mat and would exercise for an hour every morning. When I asked her about it, she said her father had told her that she must spend at least one hour every day on physical exercise,” he said. Speaking about the changing nature of work in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), Mr. Gandhi said he does not believe that technology will eliminate jobs entirely. Instead, he argued that jobs tend to shift.

“I fundamentally believe that jobs do not disappear; they relocate. There is a global contest for jobs. The real question is how good you are at capturing them,” he said. He pointed out that China has built an extremely strong industrial system that currently outperforms most countries. However, he noted that China’s system is often associated with coercive practices and limited democratic freedoms.

“If India can build a powerful industrial and production system while maintaining democratic values, it would be a huge service not only to the people of India but also to the rest of the world,” Mr. Gandhi said. He also noted how technological systems shaped global powers. The internal combustion engine and petrol defined the last century, determining which countries to become superpowers. “The British built power around the steam engine and coal. They developed a navy and controlled global trade routes. Later, the United States built its dominance around petrol and mobility,” he said.

According to him, the world is now transitioning toward technologies based on electric motors and batteries. Sectors such as drones, electric vehicles, electric trains and advanced medical devices, etc., are increasingly built on the same technological architecture. Even the military systems are also moving toward technologies based on batteries, optics, and electric motors. “Today, the country that dominates these technologies is not India, not the United States and not Europe, but China,” he said. However, Mr. Gandhi expressed confidence that India can compete with China in the field of electric mobility if it adopts the right policies and vision. “If India focuses on this space and builds the right capabilities, we can compete with China, the area where India needs to concentrate,” he added.