HYDERABAD, India, 24 January 2006 — Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who has been the star attraction at the 82nd Congress plenary here, indicated yesterday that he was willing to take greater responsibility in the party but would rather prefer for the present to “learn and understand” to serve the party and people better.
Speaking briefly during a discussion on the party’s political resolution, Rahul told his enthusiastic supporters: “My place right now is (to be) among the people. My place right now is to learn and to understand so that I serve my people and party better. I appreciate and I am grateful for your feelings and support. I will not let you down.”
During the three-day session, which concluded yesterday, Congress leaders from across the country have been clamoring for “greater responsibility” for Rahul in the party by inducting him into the Congress Working Committee, the highest policy-making body of the party.
Rahul appealed to the grassroots workers and youth in the party “to move into the battlefield in the heart of India. Let us go into the towns and villages, universities and schools. Let us move away from the corridors of power and rebuild our links with the people. Let us listen truly to the wisdom of our great people. Let us try to understand their concerns and aspirations. Let us become leaders by listening, by learning and working rather than through posts and positions.”
“To the elders, I humbly want to say, we are your soldiers. You provide us with the tasks and identify and reward our success. Open the doors of the Congress party to those millions of Indians who believe in our ideology and our struggle to make this country great.
“And most importantly, recognize the grassroots workers who fight our battles, who carry our flag. Give them a voice in the organization,” he told the senior leaders in the party who had joined the youth brigade in demanding greater responsibility for him in the party.
Rahul has kept a relatively low profile since being elected to Parliament in 2004, focusing on his constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. He belongs to the Gandhi dynasty — unrelated to Mohandas K. Gandhi, the pacifist and independence leader — which has governed India for 38 of its 58 years as an independent nation. Even now, Rahul’s mother, Sonia, heads the Congress party.
His father, Rajiv, was prime minister from 1984 until 1989. His grandmother, Indira, ruled twice, from 1966 until 1977, and then from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984. And his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was India’s first prime minister, governing from 1947 until his death from natural causes in 1964.
Though he declined a party post, Rajiv promised to revive Congress’ mixed fortunes in the northern Hindi heartland. “North India has been our stronghold, a source of power. Why is it that it has now become our weakness?” he asked.
“We owe our rise to the people. Similarly, if we have not been able to perform well in some states it is because of failure to address public grievances.”
