DIGG DO NEWS

25th Nov 2009

Interacting with the media at Jaipur after his two day Rajasthan visit Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said that he is in Rajasthan with one focus and that is to strengthen the Youth Congress and NSUI. Elaborating on his role he called himself a ‘catalyst’ and at the age of 39 found himself old enough to be called youngster. On a question related to reservation he said that more and more focus should be on supply of education which means more and more educational Institutions and facilities for youngsters.

Talking about the organizational elections being held in the Youth Congress, Congress General Secretary said, “We started this from Punjab, then Gujarat and then Pondicherry. We also did the same in Tamil Nadu, and now same is going on in Tripura, Rajasthan, UP and other states. There are two thoughts behind this process; first more and more youth should join these organizations and second democratization of these organization which will give them space to raise

their voice. For that reason I am here and we are getting good response in Rajasthan. As this process is gearing up, so does its response increasing. . When we started up in Punjab, we had just around 30 thousand members but after elections we jumped to around 3.5 lakhs, getting more than ten fold increase in the membership. After Punjab we did it in Gujarat and added around 7.5 lakhs member. Thereafter, we did it in Pondicherry and in Tamil Nadu; in Tamil Nadu we added up around 14.5 lakhs members. So, this is showing a good progress. It is a matter of happiness to see the youth involved in such a huge number and a new dynamism has entered into the Youth Congress and the NSUI.”

Congress General Secretary said that in the Youth Congress and the NSUI there are adequate number of seats reserved for adivasis, Dalits, women and minorities. He said, “Our system is not a ‘winner take all’ system. The system we follow is that; the top 10 persons at Panchayat, block or district level is selected in our system. We have certain number of seats reserved for adivasis, Dalits, women and minorities. Our idea is to send the leaders to assemblies, Loksabha or district bodies having a support base in Youth Congress. We don’t think that if one has won, then rest are losers”.

Talking on the changing demography of the country and entry in politics through connections he said, “If you look at the Indian population and you do the demographic analysis of the Indian population, I am an old. A person of 39 in India is an old person, because 60% of our population is below 40 years. There are lots of leaders already in Punjab, in Gujarat and in Tamil Nadu who have no family connection in the system. My secretary Meenakshi Natarajan has no connection whatsoever; she is a Member of Parliament. I can name many members like that. I can name you many MLAs like that. I can certainly tell you many such people in our organization by hundreds. These people are doing very good job in the field. What we are putting in place is a process. It is not an event that happens once; it is a process that will keep happening. The process will mature and deepen and my expectation is as taken the first election, we will have a lot of people who have connections. But I think that in the second and the third elections, changes will start to come. Already we are seeing a big difference between the election in Punjab and the election that is going to happen in Tamil Nadu. It is quite visible. One must not see this as an event, this is a long term process and what we are committed to do this in Youth Congress and the NSUI is to follow this process”.

Speaking on the empowerment of the youth, Congress General Secretary said, “I just want to make one sentiment very clear. Rahul Gandhi is not one to empower the youth in the Youth Congress. The youth will empower themselves in the Youth Congress. I am catalyst. I am not the leader of this Youth Congress; I am not even the member of the Youth Congress. My job is to make this a dynamic and powerful organization. The people who are taking part in these processes are all under 35 and they are all taking their own decisions. Elections are happening in Punjab and in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan; I can not tell you today that who is going to be the President of the Rajasthan Youth Congress; I have no idea. I will not be able to tell you that until the day he is declared elected. And no body in this table would be able to tell you that. Why? Because, we are moving towards a system which listens to the voice of the youngsters. We want them to come out with their leaders; we want them to say that this is the man whom we want as the leader of the Youth Congress. So, I am a catalyst, you have to keep in mind that I am not the member of the Youth Congress and nor the NSUI. I am just an enabler”.

Talking on the representation of youth by Congress Party he said, “Our party has systematically given empowerment to the youth. We have Ashok Gehlotji, he was a youth leader in his time, NSUI leader. C P Joshiji is the same, so we have periodic flow of youth leaders in our party. They came in a massive way in the 80s. There is some truth to the fact that there was a period, I would say after 1991 when we did not take in as many youngsters as we should have. But we have corrected that. I am very confident that you will see a huge participation of the youth in our organizations”.

Congress General Secretary said, “My job is to increase the participation of youngsters in politics. I am here to make sure that as many youngsters coming to this organization and as many youngsters are empowered in this organization; and that’s my focus. I want to concentrate on the future of the Youth Congress, the NSUI and the Congress Party. It is my endeavor to ensure that youngsters of this country not only participate in politics but are empowered in politics. That’s why I am insisting on democratically elected organization in the Youth Congress and the NSUI”.

Congress General Secretary said that he did not have any regret in his life. He said.”I don’t see my job as politics. I see my job as empowering the youths of this country and trying to do what little I can to make the future of this country. Whatever I would have been doing, whether I was doing politics or anything else that is the framework I would be thinking about”.

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