My agenda is how I ensure that as many bright and young people come into politics : Rahul Gandhi

On second day of his UttarPradesh visit, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi interacted with the media . He started his interaction with an opening remark, "As in rest of the states, Youth Congress and the NSUI is going through the elections and same is being done in UP. And the thought behind this as you all well know is to bring the youth into politics on the basis of merit. We have got good response in UP, even more than my expectation. People across caste and religion are showing interest in this scheme. I am quite happy to see all this. So, this is our process and our first step. We will finish it within a year in the country and it will convert into a continuous system onwards".

Replying to a query on similar elections in the Congress Party and his Mission 2012 for UP he said, "I have spoken on this issue time and again. This is my habit to focus on the responsibilities assigned to me. My responsibility lies in as a Member of Parliament from Amethi and General Secretary of Congress in charge of Youth Congress and the NSUI. I focus on these issues. My responsibility is to bring the youth into the Youth Congress and to open the doors of these organizations for them. This is my mission and work, I focus on. Whether Congress Party too should go through such type of elections is the concern of Congress leadership, its senior leaders and its senior bodies.
If we talk about UP mission 2012, it is common habit that we talk about elections generally. But frankly speaking, I don't have any interest in Mission 2012. My interest lies in the future of Uttar Pradesh. My view is; Uttar Pradesh should move forward in a different and new style. Elections may come and go in 2012 and after…but at this point what we think is the change in mindset. I don't focus on elections. I focus on thoughts and I focus to bring the youth into the politics. So, my goal is not mission 2012, my goal is different. My aim is to connect the youth of this state with the Youth Congress and NSUI and to provide the state a new type of politics and thinking".

Congress General Secretary further said, "There are number of goals but the larger goal is making the Youth Congress and the NSUI` open organizations'. It is an ongoing goal. Hopefully, we would set up a type of system that will make it perpetual whereby it would start and carry on. There are also sub-goals, smaller goals which, of course, have time limits. Democracy is at one level a process and at another level a set of values and a set of ideas. We can set up a process and we set a process in Punjab, in Gujarat and we are setting up the process in Uttar Pradesh. For this process to transform itself into an idea, requires a certain degree of participation, a certain depth of participation. It will only happen with time. If you will look at our democratic system in 1950 and compare it to our democratic system in 2009, the difference is that the idea of democracy has taken hold. It has taken us 60 years; in fact it has taken us much longer because our idea of democracy is much longer. So, system and process is our Skelton, and it is easy to build a system and process. And we have clear time frame on how to build system and when, what part of system is to be built. The idea of democracy is going to depend on the people who come into this system.
What I see, wherever I go- as I saw in AMU yesterday- what I see among the youngsters is very quick appreciation of this idea. They have a very quick understanding of this idea. So, I am quite hopeful that this will gather steam very quickly. We had KSU elections in Kerala, and it had tremendous impact on the youth of Kerala. Not only in our organization, but also on the organizations that stands opposed to us. They have been asked a question that if KSU has become a democratic force why can't you? So, there are serious implications of the Youth Congress becoming a democratic force. Other political parties can not ignore this. So, that is some of the thinking behind what we do".

On being forced to change his venue of press conference by the UP government, he said, "As I said, my aim is to change the view of the way politics is done in UP. That is what I am trying to do. There are many people in the states- youngsters, older people-who have the same idea that the politics of the state is in the past. We want to take the politics into the future. Does it make any difference to me that my press confrere in held here or somewhere else? So, if it suits somebody's purpose to move my press conference it is fine. No problem, I will do it. It is not really important where this press conference is held. What is important to me is that; I communicate to the youth. And the youth of this state communicate to me and we are able to build a new type of politics for this state. And not me, not Rahul Gandhi but the youngsters of this state and Rahul Gandhi is one of those youngsters.

On becoming Prime Minister Congress General Secretary said, "We have the most capable person as the Prime Minister of this country and this is the fact that is not only accepted by the Congress Party but it is also accepted by the people in the opposition and it is accepted by people in other countries. The rest of the world also understands and appreciates Manmohan Singhji's capability. The issue of Prime Minister which you keep raising- I have answered this many times- I have one agenda and I focus on that agenda. My agenda is how I ensure that as many bright and young people come into politics. How do I ensure that an organization like the Youth Congress and the NSUI can open its doors to the energy of this country? That's why I spend my time for them. There are many people who are much more capable than me as far as being Prime Minister is concerned".

On Liberhan Commission mentioning Vajpayee's name in its report he said, "My exact word were; Vajpayeeji is a senior leader and I respect Vajpayeeji. That was my statement. Whether Liberehan Commission has done the right thing or the wrong thing, it is not for me to say. I am not some sort of a judge that I can pass judgement on these types of things. I have not gone into the details of whether he has been given the opportunity or not to represent his case, I really don't know the answer of that question. All I say, as far as I am concerned; Vajpayeeji is a senior politician and he is a senior person. As a young person and as a person who has nowhere near an experience of Vajpayeeji. In our tradition, I owe him a certain deal of respect. Which I give and that is my view on that".



Responding to a question that youth of good and political family background are only visible with him, he said, "First of all, you people tend to focus on these youth. I have with me around 600 or more youth in the Youth Congress who have worked in Tamil Nadu or elsewhere. For example Meenakshi Natarajan, no body knows her; she does not have any connection. Our Youth Congress President Ashok Tanwar, no body knows him. The problem is; the youth coming from general background you don't focus on that. If you look at the system of whole Youth Congress there are plenty of people like that. Our elected state presidents are like that. You have focussed Punjab, its president Bittuji have some relation with ex-CM. Okay....but what is the reality…? If we have to run a democratic organization, then we can not tell someone not to come just on the basis that he is a son of some politician. As I have told earlier, democracy is an idea and it will take time to run smoothly. When people will participate in a big way…it will automatically solve it. But if you want to meet those youth having no connections, I will show you in bulk. There is no dearth of such people; they are in a big number in the Youth Congress.
On the issue of price hike he said, "I regularly discuss it with the Prime Minister and he has said that government is making all efforts to improve the situation. But for the time being, the price of pulses has raised but government is leaving no stone unturned to control it. Secondly, hoarding is a big issue at the state level which results in price rise. ".

Talking on BSP and its policies, he said, "BSP is a political party and they have their own views. Mayawatiji is the CM of Uttar Pradesh and she has her own thinking; UP has elected her. We do have our own thought and there are differences. BSP or SP is not our focus. Our focus is to bring the youth of UP into mainstream politics. Our focus is to change the political mindset of UP. And we are working on that. Whatever Mayawatiji is saying, please ask it to her. Ask her about the future of UP with regard to her leadership.".

On being asked why he does not speak on employment in his membership drive, he said, "One thing should be clear. Youth Congress and the NSUI are political organizations. It must have the expression and participation of the youth what I am doing. The function of NSUI and the Youth Congress is not to provide employment. These are not employment exchanges; they are political organizations. And the political organizations are being turned into youth organizations. Lot of ideas will come about employment generation out of these organizations. The youngsters who will come into theses organizations will have views on employment and they will affect policies on employment. But it is not direct responsibility of Youth Congress and the NSUI to provide employment. Employment is an issue because of the way we educate our people, we train our people. Issues about which we and Digvijay Singhji were discussing to provide vocational training; issues of relevance of our education to the job market. There are issues of education but Youth Congress and NSUI is not a place to solve this".

Replying on his helicopter landing overlooking security concerns, he said, "See, one has a responsibility. Before coming here, my pilot took me aside. He said that these media persons have endangered his job. But what is the reality? If I am a pilot, I am absolutely the last person; I understand very well the dangers of flying in bad weather. I am the absolute last person who will do that. The pilot has not broken any rule. You are making a story out of this and destroying his career. Our state President is not a pilot. Pilot was aware of what he was doing; we had not put any pressure to the pilot he has not landed in zero visibility. It is a well known fact; a helicopter can not land in zero visibility. There was plenty of visibility there and he completely followed the procedure. He is crying right now because he is saying that media will cover this and his career is over now. And it is not fair enough to write a story without checking. Secondly, you go to the SPG, not even once I have broken the security rules. You can go and call up director SPG and ask him this question. Has Rahul Gandhi ever gone without following his security procedures? Every single thing I do…and the director SPG is fully aware of the thing I do. You can ask him the question.

Congress General Secretary said that he is impressed to see the enthusiasm of youth in every state. Replying to a question of which state has stood to his mark he said, "You should rather ask me which state has not stood up to my mark in my initiatives. This is a matter of awareness. . We started it from Punjab and we found less credibility in our process there as that was the first time we had started such elections. We had around 30-35 thousand members in Punjab which jumped to around 3.5 lakh after the elections. We got our all committees elected. After that, we went to opposition ruled Gujarat. There, the level of awareness is more; we had around 40 thousand members; now we have around 7.5 lakh members. Then we went to Tamil Nadu where we had around 35 thousand members which jumped to around 14.5 lakhs. So, wherever we are going, our process is moving forward with a good speed. There is no lack of interest or awareness. There is no any state where the youth has not welcomed this move. Even a tiny state like Tripura, we got one lakh membership; in Pondicherry, we have around 80 thousand members. The youth of this country is willing to enter the politics but its doors are closed to them. It was true for Youth Congress and the NSUI…and other organizations too…it was closed. I have opened the door and I will even break it in coming days. So, there are lots of interest in this system".

Talking on the views of the youth on historical issues like Babri disputes he said, "First of all I m not trying to create a generation. The generation is already there. What I am saying is; the generation that is there should have entry into the political system in a systematic rational manner. Second thing, where these organization should be focusing? To me if you are a youth organization you should focus on the future. So the idea in the youth congress and the NSUI that I give is to tell the youth of this country where these organizations are going to take this country. But they are democratically elected organizations, so they have their own views about issues of the past. So, I will say look at the future, but what these organization thinks you have to ask these organizations.

On being asked about the Muslim youth arrested in different states, Digvijay Singh, Congress General Secretary in charge of UP replied the question. Mr Singh said, "I will take this question as Rahul ji is not aware because we have all the list of all those Muslim boys who have been arrested in different states. So, along with our president Mr Amresh Mishra of the Anti- communal Front…we are trying to find out the actual position and status of all these families whose boys have been arrested under various acts and in different states. So, Rahulji is not aware of that.

Replying to a query whether he is shying to participate in the debate on Liberhan Commission, Congress General Secretary said, "You know I m not shying away from anything. You know me well. I feel that there are plenty of senior people who are more than capable of debating on the Liberhan commission. I have right now a programme that is being set all the way. I have an election schedule that I have to follow. If I had not come here now, we would not be able to hold the elections. I have other commitment. So, it was pretty much imperative for me to come here, otherwise I would have to delay the UP membership and the election process".

Congress General Secretary said that whatever he had said on the issue of Muslim Prime Minister is well published by the press. He had said yesterday in Aligarh that anybody irrespective of his caste, religion and region can become the PM of India.

This article is posted by Press Brief.