New Delhi: The 137-year-old Congress finally made a generational shift on Saturday with party president Sonia Gandhi passing on the mantle to her 47-year-old son, Rahul Gandhi, once referred to as the “reluctant prince”. Mr Gandhi, the sixth member of the Nehru- Gandhi family to lead the political party, takes charge at a time when the party is facing one of its worst crises, with the BJP occupying the centre stage of politics.
In his maiden speech as Congress president, Mr Gandhi again lashed out at PM Narendra Modi and accused him of taking the country back to the “medieval times”. Calling himself an idealist, Mr Gandhi said that his politics is different from what is being practised by the BJP.
“Today, politics is not being used in the service of the people, it is being used to crush them, not to lift them up. The BJP is spreading hatred and communalism. They break, we unite. They ignite fire, we douse it. They get angry, we love. This is the difference between them and us,” he said. Mr Gandhi also tried to allay the fears of the party’s old guard by terming the Congress as the “grand old and young party”.
