NEW DELHI, Mar 18: In a bid to boost the morale of ordinary Congress workers and to attract youngsters to the party, Congress president Rahul Gandhi today said he would break the twin walls between party leaders and workers and between the political system and the youth.
In his concluding remarks at the 84th plenary session, Gandhi sought to woo the youth to join the Grand Old Party ahead of the 2019 general election and declared that he had emptied the stage for them to occupy, pointing to the huge dais which only had a podium for speakers and no seating arrangements.
Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the youth and farmers have been let down by him and his Government as the youth were wondering where the jobs would come from and the farmers looking for remunerative price for their produce.
The Congress chief said it was his dream to restore the party’s pristine glory to what it was 70-80 years ago.
“To every youngster in India, we are your instrument. The Congress party belong to you. We want to open our doors to your talent your bravery and your energy. This country is struggling and it needs you,” he said.
In his over 50-minute address, Gandhi said the Congress would have to change in the coming times if it wanted to lead the nation and workers and youths will help it do so.
Admitting the “failures” of the UPA Government, he said in the last few years of the dispensation, “we didn’t stand up to people’s expectation and they felt let down by us”.
Extending an olive branch to the workers and the youth, he said there was a need to change the organisation as workers have energy and strength to change the country, but there is a wall between them and leaders.
“My first job will be to break that wall…Not with anger, but with love, giving respect to our senior leaders,” he said, amid a thunderous cheering from the gallery.
“The second wall, perhaps the bigger, we can’t break until we break the first. The second wall is between the country’s youth and political system,” he said.
He said while one worker bags a party ticket using a “parachute”, another is denied it not even after he has given his blood and sweat to the organisation. This has to change, he said.
He cited the example of Gujarat where the party gave tickets to workers and the result was that “Modi ji was seen flying in sea plane then. The day we actually gave strength to Congess workers, leave the sea plane aside, (the PM) can be seen in a submarine”. He was referring to the Prime Minister taking a sea plane ride just days before polling to some seats in the western state.
Pointing to the stage, Gandhi said, “I have vacated the stage for the youth in the Congress and outside it. I have done this for you.”
He said only the youth can change India, and nobody else can. “Not even Narendra Modi can change (India) without you.”
He said the youth four years ago thought they would make Modi the Prime Minister to change India.
“They pushed Modiji’s vehicle. The youth kept saying, on one hand Nirav Modi sat (in the vehicle) and on the other, Lalit Modi and the vehicle sped away. The youth thought they talked about change.
“On one hand Rafale planes, on the other Amit Shah’s son. And Modi ji sped away to the US,” he said, alleging corruption under the Modi dispensation. (PTI)
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