Rahul Gandhi turns 42

Rahul Gandhi, the Congress General Secretary and son of the creator of modern India – the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, turned 42 on Tuesday, 19 June. His supporters gathered outside 24 Akbar Road to wish him.

Rahul Gandhi was born on June 19, 1970 in Delhi as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He studied at St.Columba’s School in Delhi and later at Doon School in Dehradun. Rahul Gandhi took admission for graduation in St.Stephen’s College, Delhi in 1989 but later joined Harvard University after completing the first year. He finished his B.A in 1994 and in 1995 he secured M.Phil from Cambridge University.

In March 2004, Rahul made his entry into politics by contesting the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, his father Rajiv Gandhi’s constituency, in Uttar Pradesh. The seat had been held by his mother Sonia Gandhi until she shifted to the neighbouring seat of Rae Bareilly. In his first interview Rahul Gandhi proved himself as a true lover of the nation and had condemned the divisive ideologies and had said that he would try to remove discrimination in the name of caste and religion. Rahul Gandhi won from Amethi with a landslide majority with a margin of over one lakh votes beating the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP).

Rahul Gandhi was later appointed a General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007. He also was also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi retained his Amethi constituency by defeating his nearest rival by a margin of more than three lakh votes. Under his leadership, Congress could revive itself in Uttar Pradesh by winning 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats and Rahul was credited for this victory of Congress.

Though Rahul Gandhi’s entry in politics generated surprise among political commentators, the presence of this young visionary leader gave a boost to Congress party's political fortunes specially among India's youthful population.

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Rahul Gandhi at IIIT Amethi: To gather knowledge, go towards the problem

Congress General Secretary and MP from Amethi Rahul Gandhi spoke at the occasion of the convocation ceremony at IIT Amethi and said that to gather more knowledge one should move more close towards the problem.
Rahul Gandhi said “So the first thing I told you was to question yourself. And the second thing is that to gather knowledge, go towards the problem. That is what I did experience. When I go to a poor person’s house and asks about the things he does, I get the knowledge. So I realize that he knows better than me about his nature of job. So it is very important to respect the person’s views who is much closer to the problem”.
“In order to respect the person’s views who is much closer to the problem, you will have to give equal status to that person. There is a feeling among the politicians in India that they are the most knowledgeable persons. Understanding the knowledge is built on the destruction of the knowledge. In our ancient scripts there is a trinity- creator, preserver and destroyer. There is a reason behind it. You cannot have creation without destruction. You cannot have destruction without creation. And you cannot have either of these two without preservation” added the young Congress MP.
“And that is the same with knowledge. To get the current knowledge you will have to destroy the existing knowledge. To destroy the existing knowledge you will have to question yourself. You will have to learn to question yourself and question the persons around you. The more you do that the more knowledgeable you will become” concluded Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi: Congress will work for empowerment and betterment of the people

Launching a blistering attack on non-Congress in Uttar Pradesh for depriving the people of the benefits and amenities of development in the state, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had said that Congress (I) has been working hard for empowerment of the people. Development of the country is possible only when the people are empowered and able to unleash their creative potential; this is what Congress (I) has been doing about, said Rahul Gandhi while addressing public meetings in the recently held assembly polls in the state. Highlighting Congress’s achievements, the Congress General Secretary said, “Congress always did what it promised – take the Right to Information, Right to Education and now the Right to Food, which we are shortly going to implement to ensure that no one remains hungry in this country.” Criticising BJP for its policy of double speak of saying one thing but doing just the opposite, Rahul Gandhi reminded that how NDA government mislead the country by giving the “India Shining” slogan in 2004 general elections. Referring to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s slogan of umeed-ki-Cycle, he said while Mulayam has been riding the cycle, he punctured the hopes of the people. Mayawati offered corruption-free government in 2007 but after coming into power she has been running the most corrupt government in the country. Requesting the people this time to give chance to Congress (I) to form government, Rahul Gandhi promised that his party would continue to work for empowerment and betterment of the people by bring more and more pro-people measures.

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Mayawati made money, poor got nothing: Rahul Gandhi

Slamming Mayawati for simply doling out money to the poor, Congress (I) General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said that the poor rather need capacity building programs so that they can stand up on their own feet. Simply giving out money to poor does not help them. Rather it creates dependency factor among the poor. Congress (I) approach for development of Bundelkhand is focused on capacity building programs instead of distributing money to the poor for vote bank politics, said Rahul Gandhi while campaigning for the recently held UP Assembly elections. “I have been personally visiting drought hit Bundelkhand region and interacting with people there. Keeping in view the poverty, hunger and unemployment we got a special package of Rs 8,000 crore sanctioned from the central government for integrated development of the region,” Rahul Gandhi added. But due to corruption in Mayawati’s government benefits of development schemes have not reached the poor, Rahul Gandhi said further. For instance, while deep bore-wells have been dug there is no water in them. Similarly plantation was undertaken but plants did not survive, he said. Rahul Gandhi highlighted that for equitable development of this region, Congress (I) manifesto has promised another package for Bundelkhand.

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Rahul Gandhi to visit Karnataka to revive Congress

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi will be undertaking a two-day visit to Karnataka from June 2 in a bid to revive Congress and to formulate the Congress’s strategy for the 2013 assembly polls in the state.
He will attend the Youth Congress national executive committee meeting in Hubli on June 2. After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi will participate in an interaction session in which he would meet senior citizens, intellectuals, retired officers and Jnanapeeth awardees, and seek their suggestions to make the administration more responsive.
On the second day of his tour, the Congress leader is scheduled to visit Davanagere where he will interact with all elected members of Congress, including members of municipalities and other local bodies. Rahul Gandhi also will address a gathering of about 5,000 elected representatives. The Congress General Secretary will hold discussion with senior leaders and executive committee members of KPCC.
After lunch, Rahul Gandhi will hold an interaction session with students. The state Congress sources say that Rahul Gandhi’s visit will boost the morale of the young in order to build the nation on the lines of secular and progressive line.

BSP ministers had fun, poor suffered: Rahul Gandhi

Accusing Mayawati of running the most corrupt and atrocious government, Congress (I) General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had said that her ministers had fun time while the poor suffered deprivation of all sorts. These ministers misused their official positions, grabbed government lands and made money by any fowl way, Rahul Gandhi had alleged while addressing a public meeting in Jewar, Noida recently as part of his Congress campaign.

The Congress leader had sufficient reasons to level such allegations. In a latest case UP Lokayukta has recommended CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe against BSP’s minister Naseemuddin Siddique. The minister has been found possessing assets disproportionate to his income. The assets were acquired after Siddique become minister. In the past Lokayukta had indicted a number of BSP ministers on corruption charges and Mayawati had to remove them. Numbers of other BSP ministers and legislators have been convicted by courts for criminal charges like rape, murder and extortions. These ministers fleeced the people and had fun while the poor suffered miseries of hunger and poverty in silence.

While saying that that the only way to come out of this sordid situation was to enable Congress to form a government in the state, Rahul Gandhi urged the people to vote for Congress (I). The young Congress General Secretary also promised that his party would provide responsible government which would work for the welfare of the people in Uttar Pradesh.

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UPA-2 anniversary: Sonia Gandhi says the achievement of UPA is unique

Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi while speaking to allies at a dinner to mark the completion of three years of UPA-II on Tuesday acknowledged that the UPA can secure another mandate only on the basis of the works done by it and not promises.

"I know these are difficult times but this is no reason to feel depressed. We faced a lot of challenges in the last year inside and outside the Parliament,” said Sonia Gandhi added.

Sonia Gandhi continued, “The achievement of UPA 2 is unique. MNREGA became more effective in UPA 2 while there was expansion of health insurance. It also helped the people in the unorganised sectors. The farming sector also became much more organized. Loans to farmers have been increased,” the UPA chairperson said.

“We are determined to remove the difficulties of women and the economically weaker section. We are united to progress economically,” Sonia Gandhi said.