After taking over the reins of the Congress, the party’s new president Rahul Gandhi made his philosophy clear and said the Congress will have to fight the “hate” spread by the BJP with “love”.

Remembering his entry into politics 13 years ago, he said he joined politics as an idealist because of his profound belief in this country, its people and its path ahead. “However, many of us are disillusioned today by the politics of our times. Because what we see before us is a politics devoid of kindness and truth. Politics belongs to the people, it is their greatest weapon in dismantling the structures that oppress, silence and disempower them. But today, politics is not being used in the service of the people, it is being used to crush them, not to lift them up,” he said.

He said he learned soon that the moment one challenges the structures of power to stand with the weak, the moment one announces that one stands for the poor, “you are attacked and in order to defeat you, they hit you on all fronts. They lie and they distort”. “Those in power in India today are shaped by the very structures that keep India poor,” he said.

“The Congress took India into the 21st century while the Prime Minister today is taking us backwards, to a medieval past where people are butchered because of who they are, beaten for what they believe and killed for what they eat. This ugly violence shames us in the world. Our country, whose philosophy and history is born out of love and compassion, is tarnished by such horror and no amount of hugs can repair the damage done to this great country of ours,” the Amethi MP added.

Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said: “We are now being compelled to imagine that businesses can be built without harmony, that only one man, one man himself – is the voice of reason, that expertise, experience and knowledge can be cast aside for personal glory, that it is acceptable for our foreign policy to lie in tatters so that one man can feel strong, and that everything in fact is subservient to the leader’s personal image.”

He said he realised over the last few years is that the regressive forces attack the Congress and try to weaken it but they can only defeat the Congress if the party backs down. “Stand up to them - and their anger and hatred makes all of you and us stronger. We, in the Congress, will never back down and away from our promise to our country and our beloved people: our commitment to India’s past, its present and its future will stand today and evermore. And our commitment is this: we will defend the voice of every single Indian. We will never allow the democratic dreams and longings of our people, not one of them, to ever be silenced,” he said.

He said he wants the Congress Party to become an instrument for dialogue between Indian people – all of us, from all corners of our great country, all religions, all ethnicities, all ages, genders and people – and for our dialogue to always be led by love and affection. “We, the Congress, have always been guided in the service of our community of brothers and sisters. We fight for everyone, for all those in the periphery, all those relegated to the fringes,” he said.

20-year-long journey at an end

Sonia Gandhi, in her farewell speech as Congress president, said 20 years ago, when she was given the responsibility of becoming the Congress president, she was nervous about managing a grand old party. She said former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s murder changed the way she looked at life. “I wanted to keep my family away from politics. But my husband took the responsibility on his shoulders. After seven years, my husband was also killed,” she said and added that it took several years for me to come to terms with these realities. “When I found that communalism was growing and the Congress is in crisis, I heard the voices of Congress workers,” she added.

"It’s our mission to protect the values of this country. The values of this country face attacks on a daily basis. There is a war on our composite culture. The Congress will have to face this crisis. If we do not rise to the occasion, we will not be able to fight for the common people. We should be ready for sacrifices,” she said, and hoped that a young leadership can bring in more changes.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there are certain disturbing trends noticeable in the country’s politics. He said there are dangers that politics of fear will take over from politics of hope. He urged Rahul Gandhi to transform the politics of hate to the politics of hope. He hoped that Rahul Gandhi will take the Congress to new heights of glory by fighting poverty, ignorance and diseases that affect millions of people in the country.

Related Topics