Young and impatient India is demanding change: Rahul Gandhi

Mangaloretoday/NDTV

Jaipur, Jan 20: The Congress’ number 2, Rahul Gandhi, hugged his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi on stage before and after making his first political speech as the party’s Vice-President; he promised deep, effective change. "An impatient, young India wants change," Mr Gandhi said.
 
To his party, which has been getting battle-ready over the last three days for the Lok Sabha elections 2014, the man who shall lead them there said it must prepare 40 to 50 leaders who would not only lead states but run the country. 

 

 

And he won a standing ovation when he narrated how his mother had come to him last night and cried. "She cried because she understands the power so many seek is a poison. She can see it because she is not attached to it. We should not chase power for the attributes of power, we should only use it to empower the voiceless," Mr Gandhi said, to much applause.

The 42-year-old Congress leader tore into a system that that he said was dominated by mediocrity, "excludes knowledge" and centralises "power grossly. "A system where a handful of people in power, removed from reality, made decisions that affected the aam aadmi or common man, was a flawed system, Mr Gandhi said. The answer, he said, was not in the running the system better, but in "a complete transformation of the system" to give the common man a role in the political space. "We don’t empower people at the bottom. People feel they are outside of the system...why people are angry...because they are alienated from the system. Their voices are trampled upon," Mr Gandhi said. And he explained how his party, the Congress, had already put in place building blocks to enable that change.

Mr Gandhi began his speech in English, switched to Hindi, and then spoke in English again. He was in turn oratorical and conversational. He rarely smiled. He slammed "people who are corrupt but stand up and talk of eradicating corruption" or "people who disrespect women but talk of women’s rights" and promised that his party will "support every Indian."

The speech was designed the show-stopper, and came at the end of a day-long All India Congress Committee or AICC meeting in Jaipur. There was pin-drop silence for most part as 1,500 people heard him speak. Before that, through the day, he sat to the right of Sonia Gandhi on the ground on a massive stage, flanked by many senior Congress leaders, listening keenly to other speakers. The mood in the Congress has been buoyant since last night when his appointment was announced and proceedings in the morning were delayed for some minutes as excited AICC delegates raised slogans in praise of Mr Gandhi, who smiled and raised folded hands in greeting.

Mr Gandhi thanked the party for appointing him vice president; the elevation was endorsed at the Congress’ highest decision-making body, its working committee or the CWC, at the end of a two-day brainstorming session yesterday. It is expected to galvanise party workers after a series of demoralising electoral setbacks. Congressmen have been celebrating with drums, slogans and fireworks. Many Rahul Gandhi posters sprang up overnight in the national capital.