News - Bullet: Jaipur / New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi was today named the Congress Vice-President, making him officially the number two in the India's oldest party. Congress party spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi told reporters that the decision to elevate Rahul Gandhi was taken by the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision making body, at its 'Chintan Shivir' in Jaipur. "With his appointment as Vice-President of the Congress party today, Rahul Gandhi has been elevated to number two position in the party," Dwivedi said. "This decision will greatly strengthen the party and the hands of the Congress President," he said. Crackers went off at 10 Janapath, Sonia Gandhi's residence by party workers who were elated to see the
Gandhi scion taking up a larger responsibility in the party. Similar scenes were witnessed outside the ‘Chintan Shivir’ venue. The wish from the party's rank and file got amplified through the 130 odd Youth Congress and NSUI leaders at the conclave. Congress sources said many chief ministers including Prithviraj Chavan of Maharashtra, Vijay Bahuguna of Uttarakhand, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Haryana told the party leadership that "Rahul should get a bigger role now". Rahul, who heads the party's 2014 poll coordination panel, shared the stage Friday with his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior Congress leaders. "He (Rahul) represents the demographic dividend. We want him to lead in 2014 but he has to take the final call," Minister of State (independent charge) for Power Jyotiraditya Scindia said. Congress MP from Lakshadweep, Hamdulla Saeed said: "We want to see him (Rahul) lead in all spheres." Pawan Godara, who heads the Youth Congress in Rajasthan, and is a delegate at the party's 'Chintan Shivir' or introspection camp, said young leaders wanted Rahul to lead the party in the next general elections. It is also because of the 42-year-old Gandhi that the conclave at Jaipur has seen such a large contingent from the Youth Congress and the party's student wing, National Students' Union of India. Rahul, who has said he is ready for a bigger role, played a key role in deciding who gets a cabinet berth in Oct 2012 government reshuffle. Who is Rahul Gandhi?: 42-year-old Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. Rahul Gandhi is the General Secretary of the ruling Congress party. He is also the Chairman of the Congress coordination panel for 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He is the son of Rajiv Gandhi and incumbent Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and the grandson of Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. Rahul was born on 19 June 1970, he attended the Doon School, St Stephen's College, completed his BA from Rollins College, Florida.Rahul Gandhi completed his M Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge and worked for private firms in London and Mumbai. In September 2007 when he was appointed general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI), Rahul Gandhi promised to reform youth politics. He has been made the Working President or Secretary General so that he gets a higher profile for projection in the next Lok Sabha elections. Party workers insisted that the party needed to have a young leader to connect with the youth and the sentiment among partymen was for giving larger and predominant role to Rahul Watch: Rahul Gandhi to get bigger role
Rahul must work hard to be perceived as a dynamic leader: New Delhi: It is said that once the conqueror, Taimur the ‘Lame’, talked to the famous historian and sociologist, Ibn Khuldun, about the fate of dynasties. Khuldun said that the glory of a dynasty seldom lasted beyond four generations. The first generation inclined towards conquest, the second towards administration. The third, freed of the necessity to conquer or administer, was left with the pleasurable task of spending the wealth of its ancestors on cultural pursuits. Consequently, by the fourth generation, a dynasty had usually spent its wealth as well as human energy. Hence, the downfall of each royal house is embedded in the very process of its rising. According to Khuldun, it was a natural phenomenon and could not be avoided. Set in the democratic world of our contemporary history, the rise and fall of the Nehru-Gandhi family suggests the soundness of Khuldon’s pronouncement. Jawaharlal Nehru was the architect, while Indira Gandhi expanded his achievements by emerging as one of the most powerful personalities of the 20th century. Sanjay and later Rajiv Gandhi experimented a lot and paid heavily. Now the fourth generation of Rahul Gandhi perhaps has good intentions, but things are not clicking at all. It would be too much to expect that Rahul Gandhi would take a leaf out of his grandmother’s book of life. In 1947, when communal troubles were at their peak, Indira Gandhi was spotted amid a bloodthirsty mob, rescuing a family that had given up hope. There was no security ring around her, but armed with extraordinary moral courage, she left the rioters stunned with her sharp tongue and pace. Why was Rahul silent? Rahul Gandhi’s silence over the ghastly rape and murder in Delhi has been most baffling. Like millions of his fellow countrymen, he may have been too numbed by its brutality and felt helpless. Perhaps like the victim’s friend, he felt the futility of lighting candles and spending sleepless nights at India Gate and Jantar Mantar. But the youth icon missed a good opportunity to empathize with young and old alike. Both ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’ were looking at him with expectation. He did not have to offer any instant solution. All that was required of him was an admission of collective failure, of something going horribly wrong and of the need to change — in utter disregard of the line of thinking in North and South Blocks of Raisina Hills and among his own spin doctors. Rahul Gandhi waited, thinking things would settle down but the momentum was lost. It was far from what Indira Gandhi had done several years ago, in spite of being out of power when the Belchi massacre occurred. She flew to Patna, motored into the countryside and then, because the monsoons had made the roads impassable, reached Belchi on elephant back. It was late at night and she shone a torch on her face so the villagers could recognize her. The next morning, a stark black and white picture of Indira Gandhi entering Belchi, alone but undaunted, frail but fearless, her strong profile silhouetted against the black night, was on all the front pages. It signalled her return to politics. It also proved something more important. There was no one in Indian politics who could compete with her. It requires common sense to comprehend situations. When reckless statements were made at alarming speed, someone like Rahul Gandhi needed to advocate change — be it in archaic laws, the police, the judiciary, the bureaucracy or in a mindset. He needed to say something close to what he loves saying, “There is a need to change thevyavastha [system].” Next, he could have asked for the removal of sex-offenders from the Congress, pressed for the passage of the women’s reservation bill, for police reforms and so on. More immediately, he could have used his influence within the United Progressive Alliance to remove the Delhi lieutenant governor (who has already completed his term in April, 2012), the police chief and perhaps the chief minister. He should have recalled how the Mumbai chief minister and the then home minister were asked to quit days after 26/11 attack. There was nothing specific against Vilasrao Deshmukh or Shivraj Patil, but their exit at that time had acted as a balm. The subsequent 2009 Lok Sabha polls, too, vindicated that the UPA’s moral high ground had helped the Congress. Current task more daunting for the Gandhi scion: Rahul Gandhi’s current task is more daunting than Rajiv Gandhi’s in 1981-83. Today, under Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, Rahul has many challenges and the clock is ticking fast towards the May, 2014 general elections. Apart from reviving the Congress, an organization that is being controlled from the centre and has had its grassroots structure diminished considerably, Rahul Gandhi has to act as an interface between party workers across the country, strike up a rapport with present and future UPA allies and justify every action the Manmohan Singh government takes under a grim economic situation and coalition compulsions. It is an open secret that as in the 2008 nuclear deal between India and the United States of America, Rahul Gandhi is backing the prime minister on pushing economic reforms. But his spin doctors do not want him to take any credit for opening doors to foreign direct investment in retail. Many All India Congress committee office-bearers feel that Rahul Gandhi’s support for the rise in prices of diesel and liquefied petroleum gas and his declared support for controversial measures like FDI in retail could prove costly. So while he convinced his mother that the prime minister needed a free hand in this matter, his stamp is missing. As a result, in the public eye, he is seen as a leader who is shying away from taking a firm stand on key economic issues pertaining to the lives and livelihoods of millions. Rahul Gandhi’s experiments with the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India have shown little dividends. Even diehard Congressmen see little wisdom in his personally interviewing aspirants for the post of Youth Congress chief. Instead of acting as a factory of young leadership, the Youth Congress of 2004-2012 produced a band of young members of parliament but most of them are young dynasts. Their presence discouraged the grassroots workers who realized that the leaders were parachuted from the top. Rahul himself candidly admitted that the Gandhi ‘tag’ helped him emerge on top. In the Congress’s ‘chintan shivir’ at Jaipur, the party is trying hard to pick up the threads. It has coined a slogan, “Pehle hoga nari samman, phir hoga bharat nirman.” Rahul Gandhi is asking for the inclusion of gender-sensitive subjects in the school curriculum, a hard line against Pakistan and tougher laws to deal with rape and crimes against women. Nothing succeeds like success, Rahul’s future depends on the party’s success in winning the coming assembly polls in 10 states, keeping workers’ motivation high and bringing an element of moral value in every UPA-Congress action. He has to be perceived as active and visible, intermingling with both the Congress rank and file and the aam admi. If Rahul Gandhi wishes to prove Ibn Khuldun’s prophecy-theory wrong, he must deliver to the best of his abilities in the 2014 elections Source: News-Bullet, With eye on LS polls, Congress ‘Samvad Baithak’ begins in Surajkund: New Delhi: After a strong attack on the Opposition and its detractors at the November 4 rally, Congress top brass assembled on Friday at Surajkund to embark on manifesto implementation and discuss the current politico-economic situation in the country with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. All party leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi left behind their red beacon cars and traveled in two buses from Congress HQ too Surajkund in Haryana. The ‘Samvad Baithak’, will set the agenda for larger brainstorming at Chintan Shivir to be held at Rajasthan in January next year. –UNI, PM, Sonia Gandhi inaugurate Ghat Ki Guni tunnel: Hindustan Times, Jaipur on Saturday got a safer alternative to its accident-prone connector to NH-11 with the inauguration of Ghat Ki Guni twin-tube tunnel by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in the presence of chief minister Ashok Gehlot. With a combined length of 2,800 metres, the twin-tube tunnel, bored through Jhalana hills at a cost of Rs. 150 crore, would help ease traffic congestion on the existing connector and systematise vehicular flow at the Eastern Gateway of the city. Before this, vehicles had no option but to pass through a narrow passage at Ghat Ki Guni, leading to massive traffic jams on the accident-prone two km serpentine road which rose in a steep slope towards the National Highway 11 to Agra. Image: photobucket.com
