Anil Narendra
The speech of Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice President at the
annual general body meeting of the industrial federation, CII has been widely
circulated. Earlier, it was claimed that Rahul Gandhi’s speech would be a reply
to Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat ,
but I was deeply distressed by his speech. Firstly, was the CII, an appropriate
forum for such a political speech? You are talking of poverty to the prosperous
class of the country. Then, who were your target audience? Your Government or
your party? If the Congress is failing today, then neither the opposition nor
the common man is responsible for this failure. The Congress Party has ruled for
56 years during the 69 years of post- independence era.. Non-Congress
Governments have ruled the country only for 13 years. If there have been any
shortcomings, then the Congress must be held responsible for that.
In fact, the speech of Rahul Gandhi could only be
considered as a vision. It is good to have a vision, but it serves no purpose
by dreaming and making other people to dream. You have not uttered a single
word about the solution to the problems that you have highlighted in you
speech. You have not given any roadmap. Had you suggested remedies to the
problems, it would have definitely been appreciated. If I am correct in
appreciating your speech, then it appears that you wish to change the entire
political system. It may be true that the political system of the country is
being run by just 5,000 MPs/MLAs, but the parliamentary system and the
democracy cannot be rejected on this basis only, but on the contrary, Rahul
Gandhi should have been asked as to who had stopped his Government and Party to
take steps for the welfare of the common man during last nine years when his
party was in power? He is talking of devolution of power to people, whereas his
Government believes in providing facilities to the people with an eye on
electoral gains.
Rahul referred to the problems obstructing development and
also siad that these problems should be solved, but he failed to explain as to
why the central Government under Congress leadership could not accomplish this
task during their rule of last nine years? He also did not mention that during
this period, he himself was in a position to get all these problems sorted out.
Rahul’s speech resembles to the speech that Rajiv Gandhi gave at Mumbai long
back. Rajiv had even called the Congress Party as a party of agents. The
question that comes to my mind is that what reforms have undergone in his party
during these years. Were he and her mother not in a position to arrest the
decline that the party had to face? Such attractive talks could impress the
people devoid of development, but can not provided relief to them.
A number of Congress stalwarts emphasise on projecting it
as a Rahul vs Modi fight, but they ignore the basic difference between these
two. Narendra Modi talks of the positive things in aggressive tone, he talks
about how to take the country forward on the path of progress. Modi’s talks and
deeds do not differ. Moreover, he has consecutively won assembly elections
thrice, whereas, Rahul has lost elections in three states. Modi targets the
Central Government and the Congress Party, but Rahul, on the other hand, has to
cautiously tread on his way ahead. He has to express himself and also to save
his party and the Government. Fortunately, Rahul is in such a position today,
from where he can easily put an end to the political ills of governance. But,
he even did not appear to raise his voice against such a system that imposes a
Chief Minister from outside even after winning the Assembly elections. In his
hour long speech, Rahul did not touch upon the issues concerning common man
such as inflation, terrorism etc. This shows that there is
no difference in his and present Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh’s views. Rahul said that media keeps on asking me about my marriage. Some
says that when I am going to become the Prime Minister of India. Others say that
I would never become the Prime Minister. All these are irrelevant questions.
The relevant issue is how to empower a billion of people, so that their
problems could be solved. We agree with Rahul that marriage is a personal issue
and none should question about it, but becoming the Prime Minister or not, is
an important question. You advise us not to talk about your becoming Prime
Minister, but kindly explain to us that in case you do not become the Prime
Minister, then who will be addressing these problems? People? Had the people
been capable of doing appropriate things, then there would have been no need of
the Parliament or State Assemblies and not even the Village Panchayats.
It may also be asked as to what has been the role of Rahul
Gandhi himself as an MP in the Parliament? We have not seen him participating
in debates in the Parliament except on the issue of Kalavati. Howsoever
appreciation the Congressmen shower on the speech of Rahul Gandhi, we consider
his speech full of confusion and we fail to notice a ray of determination to
lead the country to the path of progress or to a new era of development. The
way his speech is being defended at the party level, indicates the Party
thinking of considering the Nehru-Gandhi family as the ultimate leader of the
country. The political maneuverability of ‘live’ speeches that is being resorted
to during the debates in the name of development and economy, may not be able
to provide any direction. As I said earlier, we want Rahul to move forward and
we offer him our good wishes, but the speech he gave at the CII, was quite
frustrating and it did not come true on our expectations.
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