By IANS,
New Delhi : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday said that India needed to think like a “big and powerful country” and only worry how it will impact the world.
Addressing the Lok Sabha in the debate on the confidence motion for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Gandhi said he was speaking as an ‘Indian’ and not as a ‘Congressman’ and fully backed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s initiative to secure the India-US nuclear deal to meet energy needs.
“We should stop worrying how the world would impact us but should worry how we will impact the world,” he said.
“The prime minister has shown tremendous courage. The magic of what Manmohan Singhji is doing is that out of the problem (of energy security), he has identified an opportunity,” Gandhi said.
He said that in the next 30-40 years China and India would play an important role in the global energy scenario. “Energy is used everywhere. Energy has destroyed nations, energy has built nations,” he said.
Speaking in English and shifting to Hindi briefly on provocation from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs, Gandhi said: “I am very proud to say that our prime minister Manmohan Singh has recognised the problem and the solution. The only way forward on the energy security for this country is diversification. Reliance on more than one form of energy is required.”
Gandhi specifically mentioned former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the BJP for realising the problem of energy security.
Gandhi said that in 1980s, when IT and telecom sectors were introduced in this country, not many believed in these either.
“Very few believed that the computer will have anything to do with empowering the poor in the country and also changing the way this country works,” he said.
He sought the help of all parties in tiding over the energy security problem.
“There is a problem with regard to energy in our country and we need to think about it. We need to solve it together,” he said.