London, Aug 26: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, while interacting with a gathering of academicians and reporters at the London School of Economics, was asked whether his privileged surname is the reason behind his ascent in Indian politics. Responding to the scathing query, the Gandhi scion said: "Judge me for my capability".

Further hitting out at critics charging him of being a beneficiary of nepotism, Rahul Gandhi said they fail to realise that his family was last in power in 1989, when his father Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.

"First thing, my family has not been in power since my father was the prime minister. This is something that is forgotten," he said.

Gandhi added that he has served for more than one and a half a decade in the political framework, before being elevated at the helm of the party.

"I have been working for 14-15 years in the political system. I have taken a beating and have learnt a lot. I am person who listens, respects other people’s ideas. The most important thing to me is that I see through hate. And I really think, I am proud of that," he said.

The Congress chief said there could either be a prejudice against him for belonging to the Gandhi family, or his critics can give him a chance to know what solutions he has for tackling the employment, agricultural and economic woes.

"Come to me with whatever questions you want, and then judge what I am," he added.

Training his guns at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said he is confident of being able to take questions which are not pre-scripted and answer them spontaneously. On the contrary, he added, PM Modi had not addressed a similar event till date.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 26, 2018 05:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).