By IANS,
Lucknow : The agenda was to inspire the youth to join the “political mainstream” and revitalise the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said Friday while stressing that he did not see himself as prime minister.
“There are many people in our party who are much more capable than me to hold the office of the prime minister…,” Gandhi said at a crowded press conference and added that “merit and capability” were the key criteria for the top job.
“In fact, we have the most capable person as the prime minister today; and his merit is recognised not only by people of this country, but even the rest of world acknowledges Dr. Manmohan Singh’s capabilities.
“As far as I am concerned, I have only one agenda – how to ensure that the young and bright… get associated with the Youth Congress and NSUI,” he said.
He denied that his objective in reactivating the youth bodies was limited to electoral politics linked with the next state assembly elections in 2012.
“My mission has been misconstrued as some kind of an exercise aimed solely as a build up for the 2012 assembly poll here… On the contrary, my mission is to look beyond electoral politics – to change the thinking of the youth and to inspire them to come forward and join the political mainstream.”
Gandhi is on a two-day visit to the state and has been touring the country trying to woo the youth to the party. The membership drive for the Youth Congress and the NSUI has been started after more than two decades.
When a scribe sought to know why his party was giving prominence only to the progeny of the high and the mighty, Gandhi shot back: “The trouble is that you people have your focus only on them. The media has not cared to know the hundreds of lesser known others who have no background or backing but were engaged in doing tremendous jobs as activists of our two youth bodies in different parts of the country.”
He, however, hastened to add: “But at the same time in a democracy, you cannot treat one’s association with families of established politicians as a disqualification.”
When his attention was drawn to the absence of any employment generation activity in his scheme of things, the Congress MP said: “Well, the Youth Congress and the NSUI were not employment exchanges, but there is no denying that these organisations will in due course come out with their own plans to tackle unemployment…”
Gandhi said he had raised the issue of price rise with the prime minister.
“He has assured me that serious efforts were being made to bring down prices of pulses. However, at the state level, I feel the problem has aggravated largely on account of hoarding.”
The Congress leader said the confusion over permission for the press conference — withdrawn by the state government that later Monday gave the green signal — did not bother him.
“It does not bother me if we were led to change the venue for my press conference because of a certain attitude of the state government. What was more important for me was to express my views and to pursue my mission.”