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INDIA, Jun 17 — It was year 2004, India was about to go into the polls. The ruling NDA government had told ‘Bharat’ that ‘India is Shining’ .But when Hindustan voted, the ruling government lost its shine and on the throne of India, UPA government was in. He and his team turned went about it methodically, creating databases, issuing identity cards, driving memberships – all very professional and business-like
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t was year 2004, India was about to go into the polls. The ruling NDA government had told ‘Bharat’ that ‘India is Shining’ .But when Hindustan voted, the ruling government lost its shine and on the throne of India, UPA government was in. In a lot of other things that NDA was wrong about, there was one major thing – Dismissing Rahul Gandhi as a political infant. But as the 2009 Forbes India ’Person of the Year’ works diligently to wake the Congress Party from its rusty stupor that assessment needs to change.
Rahul Gandhi has had a life not many have -- tragic and euphoric at the same time. Probably, that is why he took his time to make up his mind. Maybe it was an urge to be just a regular guy. After years of observations and , the scion of India’s first political family is gradually breaking out of the iron cocoon to touch hands with his countrymen. He appears to have decided that he wants to be the hope of his fractious country, the deliverer of modernity to India’s politics.
On a cold December morning in Lucknow addressing press Rahul Gandhi said “My aim is to change how politics is done. We want to take it to the politics of the future” .He declared this to about 100 journalists gathered at the Taj Hotel. The press conference also had its share of drama when, before his arrival, his media managers tried to prevent press photographers from sitting in front. Gandhi resolved the heated argument saying that they could shoot from the front as long as they did not use the flash. He explained that camera flashes distracted him from focusing on the questions.
“Yeh (clicking of photos with flash) baad mein kar lein please(Can you click the pics later please),” he said in one of the press interactions once.
His intent is clear and If he pulls it off, he would indeed be one as his politics is built on principles that are now buried in the graves of our founding fathers. Congress General secretary Rahul Gandhi’s promise is a clean, development-driven, merit-oriented politics.
A senior Congress leader tells “He is genuinely concerned about the poor of the country. That concern has taken Rahul on tours of the hinterland where he spends time with poor villagers and dalits to understand the issues they face. Few years ago, some mocked them as Rahul Gandhi’s “discovery of India” tours. Some called it vote-bank missions. They were all wrong. These tours are now understood as a part of a learning process that is expected to inspire decision-making when he may sit in the policymaker’s chair. There is a reason for it.
Along with the headline-generating tours, which include midnight jogs, Gandhi constantly meets experts in various fields seeking solutions to many of the problems he observes first hand in the villages. Persons close to him say that he seeks out agriculture experts, educationists, economists, political analysts and development theorists for their perspectives. Most of these are confidential closed-door meetings.
Sudha Pai, a teacher of political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University says “He is not the run-of-the-mill politician”. In 2005, when the idea of reviving the Congress in UP was taking root in the party, Pai was one of the first persons Gandhi paid a visit. “He had already read my book and was well informed about UP,’’ she says.
In the manner of public interaction, Rahul Gandhi is a value investor, thinking very long term and investing in resources that may seem worthless today.
Now what separates this young MP is also the different path he takes to reach the final destination. Rahul Gandhi says that he is not interested in elections, also hence he is not concentrating on UP as mere mission 2012, insisting that currently all his were focused on energizing the Youth Congress and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the party’s students wing. Gandhi believes he will be able to build a bunch of future leaders by opening up the youth wings and breaking down the nomination system to party office.
Rahul Gandhi thinks open organizational elections will bring fresh, baggage-free talent to a party atrophying in its nepotistic labyrinth. As he said in a student interaction session also “A such a system should be developed where no one person can pick and say –he is talented and she is talented. The process of selection should be democratic”. It is an uphill task, but made a bit easy because of the person in charge. A political analyst says “Gandhi understands that by building a youth constituency for himself within the party, he will not face the kind of covert attacks. So he is catching them really young; in colleges”.
In early 2008, at the executive meeting of NSUI, Rahul Gandhi asked the state presidents how many of them favoured elections. “Only the state president of West Bengal and I were in favour,” remembers Hibi Eaden, the current NSUI president and then president of the Kerala unit. Eaden says that Rahul Gandhi is not concerned about immediate set backs. He is Far sighted in his election of goals.
In spite of practically the entire leadership of the students’ organisation against it, Rahul Gandhi pressed ahead with elections, both in the NSUI and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). He and his team turned went about it methodically, creating databases, issuing identity cards, driving memberships – all very professional and business-like.
Today as he turns 40 on 19th, Media, political analysts and most importantly the ‘Youth’ of this Country regards him as a symbol of change , a new light , a new wave and a Youth Icon.
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