Rahul Gandhi skirts major issues, talks of unemployment, drug addiction
Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh
The Yuvraj, Rahul Gandhi, lived upto expectations. Like a crown prince,
he came with all the paraphernalia of royalty, waived at the Panjab University students,
entered into a monologue and evaded the burning issues which the country and
the youth face, then shook hands with some of the students and went away.
While some students thought they
were meeting the rock star of Indian politics with a four-day old stubble,
others thought they were face to face with the brother-in-law of Robert Vadra,
facing a series of charges due to his association with reality major DLF. Very
few amongst the 1000 odd students in the Panjab University campus here on
Thursday thought they were listening to AICC General Secretary of the Congress
and the future leader and Prime Minister of the country as the Congress would
like to put it.
Supposed to be the Students
Convention of National Students Union of India in which the students were
expecting Gandhi to take up questions haunting the country, the “youth icon” of
the Congress simply gave a lecture to the students, pointed out how Punjab
government was not doing its job on employment front and was indifferent to
solving the menace of drug addiction.
The students had prepared well to
ask blunt questions on the stand of Gandhi on issues ranging from the 2G scam
to Coalgate and the latest Vadra episode. They remained disappointed – these
are issues which the party would continue to evade rather than face them.
“I met ambassadors of European
countries two days ago in Delhi .
They were talking about the economic difficulties of European countries and the
United States
and how countries like China
and India are
progressing… Saudi Arabia
was the reservoir of petroleum and wealth in the last century, India
is the reservoir of youth and human resources,” the 42-year old Gandhi said.
The AICC General Secretary, who
is set for a “bigger role” in politics, again repeated how he democratized the
functioning of the NSUI and Indian Youth Congress through internal elections. He
did not mention that even in these elections, the sons and daughters of
Congress leaders won – Punjab and Haryana being no
exception.
Gandhi borrowed from the speech
of one of the youth leaders on the stage who said that 7 out of 10 youth in Punjab
is in the grip of drugs and also touched the issue of unemployment without
mentioning what the party would do to get the state rid of the twin issues of
drug abuse and unemployment. He also alleged that the money sent by the Centre
for scholarships to the students was being sent back by Punjab
repeatedly without utilising it.
The only topical issue on which
Gandhi spoke was FDI. “Do you know what FDI means? The meaning is simple…More
money to the farmers”. The Congress leader did not speak on any other benefit
which FDI is supposed to bring for the country.
He took on the BJP alleging that when the party was in power, it was not
against FDI but was now against it. “They (BJP) are also against MGNREGA…They
want to obstruct but we will not stop,” Gandhi continued, unmindful of the fact
that NDA Chairman L K Advani praised the effort in the United Nations a day ago
saying it has helped empower rural people and revive economic growth.
Enthused by the presence of a
large number of female students in the crowd, Gandhi tried to keep them in good
humour. “After 10-15 years, Punjab would have a woman
chief minister,” he said, amid much applause from the girls present. Gandhi,
nevertheless, forgot to mention that Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, a woman, was the
chief minister of the state a decade and a half ago and is still active in
politics though she was not present on the dais.
Ironically, even as the crowd
largely comprised of female students, there was none present on the dais nor
was any female student leader allowed to felicitate the leaders on the dais
which included PCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh, CLP leader Sunil Jakhar, AICC
in-charge of the state Gulchain Charak, NSUI President Rohit Chaudhary and
several other male student leaders. (October 12, 2012)
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