Rahul Gandhi, who many believe is being groomed for the country's top political job, today said becoming prime minister is not the only 'job' in the world.

The 40-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family responded in this fashion sidestepping a pointed query on him becoming the prime minister during an interaction with students at the Visva Bharati University here.

"If I will be the prime minister of India," he said, and added after a pause, "like that is the only job a person can do! There are many other jobs that a person can do."

The AICC general secretary on his maiden visit to Santiniketan in Bolpur was asked what he would do for the job prospects of fine arts students studying classical dance in the event of his becoming prime minister and Chancellor of Visva Bharati University.

Three generations of Gandhi's family had been Chancellors of Visva Bharati University founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan, 200 km from Kolkata. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi held this position in their capacity as the country's prime minister.

Stress should be given on fine arts studies, said Gandhi, as he arrived here to a boisterous welcome on the first day of his three-day visit to West Bengal.

Gandhi, who spent nearly one-and-half hours with the students, told them, "you can write to me or to the PMO with your suggestion how to strengthen fine arts studies."

When another student asked him about corruption at the university, Gandhi replied, "corruption is a problem everywhere. You have to find a solution to it."

To another question, Gandhi said he could give students a lot of work if they wished it. "If you tell me you want to work I will tell you when to do it and how to do it.

Only writing letters to leaders will not do," he said.

A student from Bangladesh told Gandhi that many students from his country were eager to study at Visva Bharati but faced problems in getting a visa.

Gandhi, who reached the University in car after he flew in by a helicopter met around 1,000 students at the Rabindra Bhavan and discussed several issues with them for over an hour.

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Rahul deflects query on becoming PM

Rahul Gandhi today said becoming prime minister is not the only 'job' in the world and that there were many other jobs a person could do.

The scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family responded in this fashion deflecting a pointed query during an interaction at the Visva Bharati University here as to what he would do for the job prospects of fine arts students studying classical dance in the event of his becoming prime minister and Chancellor of Visva Bharati University.

"If I will be the prime minister of India like that is the only job a person can do! There are many other jobs that a person can do," the 40-year-old AICC General Secretary said in his response during his maiden visit to Shantiniketan in Bolpur where he arrived to a boisterous welcome.

Three generations of Gandhi's family had been Chancellors of Visva Bharati University founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan, 200 km from Kolkata. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi held this position in their capacity as the country's prime minister.

Stress should be given on fine arts studies, said Gandhi, who is on a three-day visit to West Bengal.

Gandhi, who spent nearly one-and-half hours with the students, told them, "you can write to me or to the PMO with your suggestion how to strengthen fine arts studies."

When another student asked him about corruption at the university, Gandhi replied, "corruption is a problem everywhere. You have to find a solution to it."

To another question, Gandhi said he could give students a lot of work if they wished it. "If you tell me you want to work I will tell you when to do it and how to do it.

Only writing letters to leaders will not do," he said.

A student from Bangladesh told Gandhi that many students from his country were eager to study at Visva Bharati but faced problems in getting a visa.

Gandhi, who reached the University in car after he flew in by a helicopter met around 1,000 students at the Rabindra Bhavan and discussed several issues with them for over an hour.

He also inaugurated an exhibition 'Three Chancellors' on the tenures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as chancellors of the central university.

The exhibition, organised by the Visva Bharati, comprised photographs and correspondences of the three late prime ministers--all from Gandhi's family--who visited Santiniketan as Chancellors of the University.

Clad in white kurta and pyjamas and sporting a stubble, Gandhi was greeted by students of the Pathabhavan school. He shook hands with a few of them after alighting from his car at the gate of Rabindra Bhavan.

The 80-minute interaction with students from all the 50 departments at Rabindra Bhavan was kept out of bounds for the Press.

Gandhi earlier visited the 'Udayan' complex to pay floral tributes at the rooms used by Tagore.

After the interaction, he again walked back to the gate where hundreds of people, some even perched on trees, cheered him shouting 'Vande Mataram' and 'Rahul Rahul'.

Gandhi shook hands and greeted some of them before leaving for a meeting with Congress leaders and workers at Geetanjali Bhavan here.

Rahul against alliance without dignity

Without naming Trinamool Congress, Rahul Gandhi today said Congress will not go for any alliance without dignity in the coming Assembly polls in West Bengal, but was hopeful of a proposed tie-up.

"There will not be any unrespectable alliance and I hope we will be able to make the alliance, as proposed, happen in West Bengal before the coming Assembly election," Gandhi told a closed-door meeting of the North 24-Parganas district Youth Congress.

District Congress Committee President Asit Majumder, who was present at the meeting, told PTI that Gandhi stressed the need for such an alliance to defeat the CPI(M) in the coming elections.

"We will have to take on the CPI(M) in the polls and defeat the misrule of the party. I have been saying this in almost all meetings," Majumdar quoted Gandhi as saying.

The AICC General Secretary made a fresh appeal to the Youth Congress to step up the membership drive in order to strengthen the parent organisation.

Giving anxious moments to SPG personnel, Gandhi stopped his car to receive bouquets from villagers who broke barricades to greet him during his short tour of the town on the Indo-Bangladesh border.

On his way to nearby Rabindra Bhavan in the district to address Youth Congress workers, hundreds of villagers lined up along the barricades to greet him as Gandhi got down from the helicopter and shook hands with them.

SPG personnel rushed in to clear the road as some over-enthusiastic villagers broke the fencing and spilled on to the road, forcing his convoy to stop briefly.