After his recent expedition in the 'Discover India' campaign, Rahul Gandhi, lashed out a dignified but powerful speech at the Lok Sabha, which was somewhat off-beat ,in an otherwise 'conservative' political environment.
This speech marks the culmination of his campaign which he chose to call as 'Discover India'. A campaign where he visited Orissa starting from March 7th, 2008 and pursued his two favourite themes 'The Tribals Bill' and the 'National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme'. 12 years after both his parents visited the same place, and created the hugely traditional tribal support for Congress. After almost a decade, Rahul entered Orissa in a completely different scenario where the BJP had already made inroads and the Congress was seen to not keep up its promises.
Kalahandi in Orissa is one of the most poorest regions of India, and Rahul managed to strike a chord with the tribals in general. However, it is his speech in the Parliament that managed to take in the limelight. His very strong rhetoric, and powerful oneliners were characteristic of the young and vibrant India image that Rahul Gandhi has been talking about for quite sometime now.
Rahul Gandhi is reminiscent of his father to many people. He has an uncanny habit of appearing more people friendly than party friendly and an ability to appear less agressive and more sophisticated are some traits he might have borrowed from his father.
Whether or not Rahul Gandhi will manage to inspire youth and energy into politics, or whether he will be able to revamp the image of Indian politicians from ' huge , big bellied corrupt individuals' to the ' young educated dignified individuals' , time can only tell!
2 comments:
Rahul Gandhi's remark saying " Its my right to visit any place. No one can dictate to me where I should go and where I should not" shows his courage and strength. He is trying hard to prove himself as a good politician and a responsible indian. All the best for his efforts.
However his statement that " We will be taking more youth into our party irrespective of caste/colour/creed without any partiality and that no one will be favoured just because he has the reference of someone already in the party" was contradictory as the congress is a party wherein majority of the members are party leaders' sons/daughters/relatives.
Congress has the legacy of children and children's children leading the party and hence this statement of his does not strike a chord!
Often I feel a bit frustrated thinking of the pathetic situation of the Congress party. Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru was a natural leader.Indira Gandhi was well groomed by her father and lived up to being a dynamic leader. Things would have been better if one of the many other able congressmen have taken the leadership after that. But the grapevine started dangling from Sanjay-Rajeev-Sonia –Rahul?
Our country will get real freedom only when people have the courage and conviction for doing things what our inner sense says correct and not follow what is popular
Ravi
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