Papa, why don’t you leave politics? Rahul once asked father

Ex-prime minister told the son he was not doing so as he ‘believed in the people of the country’.

Rahul Gandhi had once asked his father Rajiv Gandhi why he was not giving up politics but the former prime minister told him he was not doing so as he “believed in the people of the country”.

Recalling this in New Delhi on Tuesday, the young Nehru-Gandhi scion said it was good that his father did not leave politics as otherwise many of the developmental programmes would not have been launched at all.

An emotional Rahul was speaking at a programme organised for release of two books on Rajiv Gandhi, including one written by Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

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While the translated version of Aiyar’s book – ‘Rajiv ki Smritiyan’ (Rajiv’s memories) — was released by Rahul, the other book titled‘Rajiv Gandhi: Takniki Vikash aur Bharat Unnayan, written by Congress activist from Amethi Jagdish Piyush, was released by Aiyar.

“One day I asked him — ‘papa why don’t you leave this (politics). You always wanted to become a pilot’. He said ‘no’. ‘I never thought of leaving it because I believe in the people of India,” Rahul said.

“Now I am in politics for over four years — being an MP.

When I think about some of the programmes my father thought about, I find none of these programmes could have been developed by somebody if he did not fundamentally believe in people of India,” he said.

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“You take Panchayatiraj. (Mani Shankar) Aiyarji said we have millions of representatives (in Panchayatiraj institutions). What does it show? It showed that you are ready to trust millions of people.