Want to break ‘walls’ within Congress: Rahul
Congress President Rahul Gandhi has sought to shape the contours of his party’s election campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the battle of Mahabharata between the Kauravas of the BJP-RSS, who are well organised with immense resources but are arrogant, who indulge in falsehood and are drunk on power, against the Pandavas of the Congress, who are humble, speak softly, and are fighting for truth.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sought to shape the contours of his party’s election campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll as the battle of Mahabharata between the Kauravas of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who are well organised and with immense resources but arrogant, who indulge in falsehood and are drunk on power, against the Pandavas of the Congress, who are humble, speaking softly and fighting for truth.
Rahul Gandhi’s presidential speech at the 84th plenary session of the Congress party, where he called for reform in the party, was reminiscent of his father Rajiv Gandhi’s speech at the centenary session of the Congress party on December 28, 1985, in Mumbai.
Rajiv Gandhi had spoken of the enthusiasm of ordinary Congress workers being “handicapped” by the “brokers of power and influence” in the party, who “dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy”.
In his speech, Rahul Gandhi said his first task would be to demolish the “wall” between leaders and workers, where party tickets are denied to hardworking workers by people who “parachute” at the last moment, or when a worker, who has spent 10 to 15 years for the party, is told he cannot get the ticket since has no money to contest an election.
In his first big address to the party as its chief, Rahul Gandhi said he wanted to carve out space for workers, and for all talented young women and men in the Congress. This process would be carried out “not with anger, but with love” and by giving “due respect to the senior leadership”.
However, Rahul Gandhi also appealed to party leaders to avoid infighting, at least until the Lok Sabha poll. “Fight (among yourselves) but after the elections. Please,” he said.
The Congress chief criticised the Narendra Modi government for its “links” with crony capitalists. He said the cases of jeweller Nirav Modi and former cricket star Lalit Modi have shown how the name ‘Modi’ has come to symbolise the links of crony capitalist with the PM.
He alleged that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is “silent” at the bank fraud case since his lawyer daughter “works for crony capitalists”.