Rahul Gandhi invokes Swaraj, asks students to drive change

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, 20 August said students were now coming out to express themselves and that this could not be stopped, urging them to channel this energy towards bringing fundamental changes for the country’s youth.

Addressing an event in New Delhi to mark the birth anniversary of his father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of an India where everyone could tread the path of ‘Swaraj’ could be achieved only if the government opened its doors to young people and the country helped them walk that path.

The LoP also accused the BJP-RSS of attacking minorities, taking away the land of tribals and oppressing Dalits, saying these needed to be reversed.

“The job of the government and the country is to open the doors to your imagination and to make you feel and believe and have the confidence that what truth is for them... The country should help you walk on that path. That is Gandhiji's vision for India, and that is the path of Swaraj.

“This is the political fight taking place in India. The students are saying we have an expression and we believe in certain things as individuals. I am very proud now that millions of young students have understood this. That the pain they were feeling was being caused because they were being trapped and not allowed to express themselves. Now that expression has suddenly come out and it cannot be stopped,” Gandhi said.

He was speaking at the event ‘Hara Bhara Swaraj: A Tribute to Rajiv Gandhi's Vision’ at Jawahar Bhawan, where former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and several other party leaders and youths were present.

Noting that merely having that expression did not mean anything, he said it had to be translated into transforming the system for the youth of the country.

“How will that expression transform the education system of our country? How will that education system transform the fact that you can do whatever you want? That's really the question. How can we use this awakening, energy, now to make fundamental changes for young people going forward? This is the fight. There is no possibility of ‘Swaraj’ for the large mass of Indian people if one man owns every single business in this country. It cannot be done.”

He said Mahatma Gandhi’s vision could not exist without certain fundamental things. “It cannot exist with an education system that is so expensive, it cannot exist with a testing system that is unfair, it cannot exist with a financial system that is monopolised by two or three people, it cannot exist without a political system that reaches deep inside the country — panchayati raj, MLAs, MPs etc. etc. That is really what you have to do.”

Gandhi said the Congress wanted an India where every individual felt special. “Imagine what the BJP-RSS has done, they have told 16 per cent of the people — Muslims, Christians and Sikhs — that they do not exist and if they open their mouth, they will see what they will do to them. Next they have said to 10 per cent Adivasis that they will take their land whenever they want and if they fight for their land, they will be shot,” he claimed.

Rahul Gandhi also claimed that the BJP-RSS had told Dalits, who comprise 15 per cent of the population, that they had dealt with social oppression in the past and asked why they were complaining, adding that there was nothing wrong with the caste system.

“That is what they have done to this country. That is what they have done to our ‘Bharat Mata’... and that needs to be reversed,” he said. “Every single person, regardless of religion, caste, age, or gender, must feel: I belong here. I am loved here. I am respected here. And my search for truth matters.”

The Congress MP said the word ‘Swaraj’ was often confused with the Western word ‘freedom’, as people thought ‘Swaraj’ meant freedom. Swaraj, he said, meant ‘swa’ over ‘raj’, or ‘rule over oneself’, and was a way of thinking. ‘Swaraj’ was a ‘Hindustani’ word and the two should not be mixed up, he said, adding that one could give freedom to someone, but not ‘swa-raj’.

He said Mahatma Gandhi wanted every person in the country to walk on the path of ‘Swaraj’, but that could not be done without the proper environment.

The Congress MP said Mahatma Gandhi’s book on truth was not called ‘My Experiments’, but My Experiments with Truth, and not ‘the truth’.

“Today, the ideological battle in India is this. The real fight is that a group of people who control the system have decided that they know the truth of everybody in this country.

“When Mr Narendra Modi says ‘I forgive the students’, meaning, ‘...I know everything and you don't know anything and I forgive you’. That's why they attack students every single day. Then suddenly they got scared and Mohan Bhagwat ji said students should not be attacked,” he said, adding that the fight was on as they were attacking everyone after believing that they knew the truth.

With PTI inputs