In his maiden speech as Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi struck an emotional chord with delegates at the Jaipur conclave that included his mother, party chief Sonia Gandhi, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he spoke from the heart on the ills that afflict the party and the people of India.
“For me the Congress is my life, the people of India are my life... I will fight for the people and the party, I will fight with everything I have,” he told delegates, who responded with a standing ovation in the middle of his speech as he declared: “We should not chase power, only use it to empower others.”
Mr Gandhi’s 40-minute Sunday address was the major highlight of the two-day “Chintan Shivir” and one-day AICC meeting, with Mrs Gandhi’s concluding speech over in a few minutes after her son spoke. It was also a clear pointer that he will play a bigger role in running the party and leading the Congress for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Power, he said, was “far too centralised” in India and young people felt alienated from the system. Only a few control political space and “we don’t empower people at the bottom. People feel they are outside the system. That happens because we don’t respect knowledge. We respect only positions. If you don’t have position, you mean nothing...”
“Why are people angry?” Mr Gandhi asked. “They are angry because they are alienated from the political class. They watch the powerful drive in lal battis (cars with red beacons). We need to meet their urgent demand for jobs... They feel alienated from the system, their voices are trampled upon... All our systems — justice, education, politics, administration — are designed to keep people with knowledge out. Mediocrity dominates discussions...”
Mrs Gandhi keenly watched her son speak, becoming emotional at some points, with Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit seen comforting her. After the speech, Rahul hugged his mother and later Dr Manmohan Singh, while many other top leaders greeted him with a warm embrace.
After eight years in active politics, Rahul spoke at length on the strengths and weaknesses of the Congress, as well as the mindsets of those running the system, vowing he would work for the entire party. “I will play the role of a judge, not a lawyer,” he said, adding all were equal for him in the party, irrespective of caste, class, religion or status. He told the rank and
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file he will not confine his activities to just the Youth Congress and NSUI, but take everyone with him, listen to everyone. The Congress, he said, was like “a national family”, and pledged he would consult senior leaders and try to learn as they knew the Congress’ history.
The Opposition, he said, was unable to understand that “Hindustan” was in the “DNA of the Congress”. In a dig at caste-based and religion-based parties growing across India, he said the Congress “did not believe in caste and religion, but in the nation — Hindustan”.
Mr Gandhi said the Congress needed “40-50 leaders” to run the country effectively, instead of the “5-6-7 (such) leaders” it had now. He stressed the need for leadership development as there shouldn’t be a dearth of competent chief ministerial candidates “unlike in our golden days (when) there were giants like Nehru, Patel, Azad...” He disapproved of the party’s practice of picking nominees at the central level, not by DCCs or PCCs. Rahul also said tickets should be given in consultation with block committees and DCCs, not imposed from the top.
“Imposing candidates leads to encouraging rebels, and thus affects the party’s electoral prospects. Fielding rebels of other parties too is not good. They come, fight elections, get defeated and then quit the party. Thus we have to strengthen our grassroots workers... they should be respected, encouraged and promoted.”
He became emotional again as he recalled the moment his mother walked into his room Saturday night after he had become vice-president. “Last night each one of you congratulated me. My mother came to my room and she sat with me and she cried... Because she understands the power so many people seek is actually a poison... He said his mother could see power is poison “because she is not attached to it. The only antidote to this poison for all of us to see what it really is, and not become attached to it. We should not chase power for the attributes of power. We should only use it to empower voices.”
He went on: “I decided I am not going to tell you only what you wanted to hear... I should tell you little bit of what I feel... about hope, and also about power...
“When I was a little boy I loved to play badminton... It gave me balance in a complicated world. I was taught how to play in my grandmother’s house by two policemen who protected my grandmother. They were my friends, then one day they killed my grandmother and took way the balance in my life. I felt pain I never felt before, and many of us have experienced this so you will understand what I am saying...
“My father was in Bengal; he came back to the hospital, and there was a huge crowd screaming outside, they were very angry... It was the first time in my life I saw my father crying, he was the bravest person I knew and yet I saw him crying...
“I was small but I could see my father was broken... In those days our country wasn’t what it is today. In the eyes of the world, we had nothing, we were worthless. We didn’t have money, we didn’t have cars, everybody said we were a poor country. Nobody thought about us. The same evening my father addressed the nation on television. I knew, like me, he was broken inside, like me he was terrified of what lay in front... but when he spoke I felt the small glimmer of hope. It was like a small ray of light in a dark sky...
“Today, as I look back, I can see it was a small ray of hope in the darkness that helped change India into what it is today. Without hope you cannot achieve anything. You can have plans, you can have ideas, but unless you have hope you cannot change anything.
“I want to talk to you about power... I am sure many of you deal with power every day... Understand what I am saying... You have to be very careful when administering power... Today India is not like 1984. Today we are no longer worthless, today the entire world is courting us. We are the future... Nations are not built on schemes and finance, there is a foundation of hope... I am standing here because I believe the Congress Party is the symbol of this hope.”
Mr Gandhi went on: “We have to relook at things in the system; we have to transform them completely... Yet I am optimistic, I am not pessimistic... I am optimistic as we have already put the building blocks of the revolution in place... India is more connected today than it has ever been, we have the networks of roads, information, communications,... for new ideas to emerge, to develop and take flight. It is no longer possible to limit an idea whose time has come.”
“Aadhar gives us (an) unprecedented mechanism to recognise the unique journey of aspiration of every single Indian no matter where he is. Direct cash transfers will allow us to respond to these dreams with an empowering delivery system. My father used to speak about 15 paise in the rupee reaching people... today we are preparing a system that (will allow) 99 per cent of the people that need money (to get it) ... It is a revolution... one no other country has done... we are preparing that revolution.”