Agencies, Jaipur A day after being elevated to the number two position in the party, Congress youth icon Rahul Gandhi today touched an ‘emotional Child’ with the people, making a strong pitch for giving a voice to the powerless. “The voices of the billion Indians are today that they want to greater say in government, in politics and in administration.
This can’t be decided by handful of people behind closed doors who are not fully accountable to them,” Rahul said in an emotionally charged address at the AICC meeting, setting the tone for the 2014 polls. Saying that he was not seeking power for the sake of it but to use it to empower the powerless, the Congress youth icon, who was yesterday designated the number two position in the party, reminisced the time when his grandmother Indira Gandhi was killed and how his father had cried then, moving audience to tears. “I was small but I could see my father broken, he had taken away his mother and he was broken,” Rahul said.
He revealed that his mother Sonia Gandhi had cried when they were together last night because she knew that power was akin to poison. “The only antidote to this poison is to empower the voices of the powerless,” Rahul said. Pointing out deficiencies in the political system, the youth icon raised the pitch for empowering people who have immense knowledge but are deprived of positions, “Power is grossly centralized in our country. We only empower people at the top of a system. We don’t believe in empowering people all the way to bottom. Every single day I meet people who has tremendous understanding deep insight and no voice and all of us meet them, they are everywhere. But almost always they are kept outside ours systems, no one can their voice, no matter how much they try to speak no one listens. And then I meet people holding high positions with tremendous voice but no understanding for the issues at hand. Why this happens is because we don’t respect knowledge.
And it does not matter how much wisdom you have.. you mean nothing. This is the tragedy of India. Why is our youth angry.. why are they out on the street. They are angry because they are alienated. They are excluded from the political class. They watch from the sidelines.. as the powerful drive around in their Lal Battis. Why are the women suffering.. because their voice is being trampled upon by people who have arbitrary powers over their lives. Why are the poor confined to powerlessness and poverty because decision the decision over their lives.. and the services they need are decided by people far away, answerable to them only in theory. until we start to respect and empower people for knowledge and understand, we can’t change anything in this country. All our public systems, administration.. justice “education.. political systems..
all of them are designed to keep people with knowledge out..” Calling for a change in the system, Mr Gandhi said, “They are all closed systems.. They are designed to promote mediocrity” and mediocrity dominates mediocrity dominates discussion while the voice of insight and thought are crushed by loudness of those who have neither the understanding nor compassion.. success in these systems does not come through building it comes by excluding.. it comes not by pushing people forward but by holding people back. To maintain the status quo we do not praise our colleagues or look at their strength and all of us every single of one us does it. We won’t praise other people. We ask them bhaiya what is your weakness. We only look out the way to neutralise them and every single day all of us a face with the hypocrisy of the system. “We all see it and then we pretend it is not there. People who are corrupt stand up and talk about eradicating corruption and then people who disrespect women everyday over day of their life talk about women rights. Until we start to respect the empowered people for their knowledge, for their understanding we are never going to change this country.”
Calling for a greater participation of the ‘aam aadmi’ in the political process, he said,’’ We need the Aam Admi to participate in our politics. Even when as I speak, their future is decided in the disclosed room. There is an young and impatient India and it is demanding the voice in the nation future. Let me tell you they are not going to watch silently. Our priorities are clear. The time has come to question the centralised on responsive and on accountable system, decision making and governance, administration and politics. The answer not to people say we need to run the system better.. The answer is not in running this system better. We have to relook at things in system and we have to transform them completely.” Thanking the members of the CWC for elevating him to the position of Vice President, Rahul said,’’this is a huge honour for me. Over the past 8 years the party has taught me tremendously. I have learnt from seniors, youngsters and thanks to all the help which I got from bottom of my heart.
Referring to the Congress party as ‘a big family’, Rahul said, every single Indian is supported by the Congress party.’’ Terming ‘Aadhar’ as ‘an unprecedental mechanism’ to recognize the unique journey of aspiration of every single Indian, Rahul said,’’Direct cash transfer, is going to allow us to respond us these dreams with an empowering delivering system. My father used to speak about 15 paisa to the rupee reaching the people and we today are preparing the system that is going to answer that question, we are going to answer that question and 99 per cent of people need money can go to them, It is a revolution, it is a revolution and no other country has done it and we are preparing that revolution.’’
Attacking the opposition for charging the Congress of ‘bribing’ the country through the direct cash transfer, the youth icon said,’’Congress is giving the people they due, is now called bribing the country , they say because they are scared.” At the same time, he expressed optimism over the Congress party’s connect with the ‘aam aadmi’. “I am most optimistic and excited because I see the energy, the passion and capability in our youth, bringing to respond to their urgent demand for jobs now.”
