In roadshow, Rahul says need to look within

Three times over the past few days, during his strategic tour of election-bound Karnataka, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi had questioned...

Three times over the past few days, during his strategic tour of election-bound Karnataka, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi had questioned his own mode of entry into politics.

The young Congress leader first told youth Congress workers and students at the Nehru Yuva Kendra, at Nanjangud near Mysore on Tuesday that the entry of more youth alone would ensure “internal democracy” in all political parties. “No one is asking political parties why there is democracy at polling booths and not within the parties. I would like to ask youth to participate in politics for democracy in all parties,” he said.

In Mangalore on Wednesday, during an interaction with students at the TMA Pai International Convention Centre, he said he was “a prominent face of the problem,” of a closed system within political parties that prevents internal democracy.

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The AICC general secretary candidly stated he would not have made significant progress in his political career if not for his family connections. “I would have tried to be in politics but progress would not have been easy if I was not connected to somebody,” he said.

During an interaction with students on Thursday morning at the NTTF, Dharwad, a technical training institution, he again extolled youth to participate more actively in politics for a greater democratic system in the country.

Rahul Gandhi’s tour of Karnataka is being billed as part of a long-term effort to connect to the youth of the state rather than an election campaign.

Much of the area he is travelling through in the south of the state, the coastal parts and the northern parts were won by BJP or JD(S) candidates in the 2004 elections.

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While the show is largely a Youth Congress affair anchored by 37-year-old Rahul Gandhi and 36-year-old State Youth Congress president Krishna Byregowda, son of a former minister, the roles of senior Congress leaders like state president Mallikarjun Kharge, 65, and other 60-plus leaders have been peripheral.

In the toughest section of his tour on Thursday, Rahul traversed over 250 km across north Karnataka, talking to youths, party workers and farmers, extolling school kids to learn English, assuring minorities equal participation in progress and even stopping at roadside eateries to connect to people.

At an interaction with farmers and agricultural technologists at the K H Patil Krishi Vigyan Kendra, he reiterated another recurring theme in this tour that the Rs 60,000 agricultural loan waiver and the acreage fixed for its applicability was a financial balancing act intended to protect all sectors of the economy.

“There has been a growing impression that the agriculture sector belongs to the past. It is, however, central to our country’s future and should be seen in that way,” he said.