New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is ready to “obey” the party’s decision on being projected as the Congress’ prime ministerial candidate. He made this clear in an interview ahead of Friday’s AICC meeting in New Delhi.
It is also becoming clear that the party is not shying away in projecting Gandhi against BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and PM aspirants among regional parties who hope to get the post after the Lok Sabha polls.
The young Gandhi, made party vice-president at the AICC meeting in Jaipur in January 2013, left the final call to the leadership. “I am a sepoy of the Congress. I will obey whatever order is given... I will do whatever the Congress wants me to do. Decisions are taken in our party by senior leaders,” he said in an interview to the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar.
“Earlier, too, some decisions were taken... Power is poison ... does not mean I am not keen to take responsibility. There is no word of reluctance in my life. The Congress has never been specific. Whatever task the Congress has wanted me to accomplish, I have done that,” Gandhi said when asked if he was ready to take up the post of Prime Minister and about the perception that he was reluctant.
Gandhi’s remark at the Jaipur meeting last January of his mother Sonia Gandhi having told him that “power is poison” had led to speculation as well Opposition attacks that the Congress vice-president was unwilling to take up the responsibilities of office.
Explaining his remarks, Gandhi said: “Power is poison is an observation that when power comes, one should know how to deal with the associated dangers that come with it. This is it. Power is poison means, use power for the welfare of people, and do not use it to make oneself bigger or more powerful.”
Asked whether he would accept any such responsibility, Gandhi said: “None of my family members ever worked for the sake of power. Neither my father nor my grandmother.” He was referring to former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.
“We are a democratic organisation. We have faith in democracy. The people of India will decide through their elected representatives who will be the Prime Minister of the country," he said.
Next: I am a Congress sepoy: Rahul
I am a Congress sepoy: Rahul
It is necessary for the Congress to come to power in the interest of the nation, and for that whatever responsibility the organisation has given me or will give me, I will carry out that with full dedication,” he said.
Attacking the BJP for its “Congress-free India” pitch, he said: “The BJP today wants personality-oriented rule, which is not in the interest of the country. The country should not be governed according to the thinking of a particular person and his ways. The future of 120 crore people can be shaped and improved only by taking everybody along.”
Saying that the “Congress is in the DNA of this country”, Gandhi said: “The BJP is talking of a Congress-free India. It does not understand that the Congress alone is the political power which has kept the people of this country united.”
Rahul Gandhi also tried to make it clear that his “sister and friend” Priyanka will not have any electoral role and that she, as an active member of the Congress, was helping him.
The party is always assessed poorly as it was in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, he said, adding: “Yes, the upcoming elections are exciting and I have full confidence that we will do good.”
Answering questions on his future role in the party, he expressed dismay at “too much focus” on one personality. “My question is why all arguments come to a halt on one post? Why this is debated at the national level? Why is a particular person or post discussed? Why nobody talks about reforms in politics? Why nobody is ready to change the system?”
Gandhi, who had earlier said his party would “learn” from AAP, also flagged some of his “differences” with that party. He said: “We have been raising issues since I came to politics. Some of these things have been implemented by the AAP. But our ways are different. I am not in agreement with many of their ways.”
