I visit a human being, not a Dalit: Rahul Gandhi

By ENN,
Thiruavananthapuram(Kerala): Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi while interacting with media in Thiruvananthapuram(Kerala) said that he goes to poor man's house and don't think in terms of Dalit or an upper caste. Replying to a question he said, "See, first of all the press sees me as staying with Dalits. I don't see myself as staying with Dalits. I see myself as going to a human being's house. I don't see him as a Dalit, or an upper caste or a lower caste. As far as I am concerned that there is a poor human being and I am going to his house. And I will go to a poor person's house whether he is a Dalit, an upper caste or a minority. And I spend nights in people's houses who are non-Dalits. So, this differentiation occurs in the media, it does not occur in my mind. I personally don't believe in the caste. I believe that whether they are a Dalit or an upper caste they are the same. It has only one difference what I can see, between a rich person or a poor person, and that is of opportunity. So this frame of Dalits is your frame; it is not my frame. My frame is; every single Indian is equal and as far as I am concerned as a politician, it is my duty to try and understand as many people's frame as possible. If I have to understand their frame then I have to understand what they are close to, and my view is to go close to them. I can't do it sitting in an air conditioned office or in any big house. So, when I do it, I go close to them. The same way I go to a university and talk to a student; the same way I go to a chaiwalla and sit down and talk to him. I don't ask the Chaiwalla, are you Dalit? No, he is a person for me. I tell my office people that please find the poorest village in Uttar Pradesh; take me there and take me to the poorest person's house. That is the format I use. If the poorest people happen to be a Dalit, he is a Dalit. You see him as a Dalit; I see him as a poor person. What I am trying to do here, I am a youngster, I am not an experienced politician; all I want to do here is to understand what the people of this country are facing, whether they are rich or poor, handicapped, whatever. And I want to spend as much time of mine trying to understand what they are faced with. As a politician I think that it is very important that I do that. Because, if I don't, I will not understand the issues."

Speaking on the Youth Congress and the NSUI, Congress General Secretary said, "Our model in the Youth Congress and the NSUI and the KSU is to have an open system, where we allow as many youngsters to enter the system. That is the first step. The second step is the promotion within that system should be based on democratic norms meaning that people, who go ahead in that organization, go ahead democratically. We don't have any norms about educational qualification in NSUI and the KSU. We feel that, that decision of the leadership should be left to the students and they should decide how they want to elect somebody who is doing well in the school and somebody who is not. So, the whole idea behind the democratization of these two organizations; the central idea is that we believe fundamentally in the youngsters of this country. And we would like them to take the decision in these two organizations."

On visiting university campuses across the country he said, he has not violated the instructions of Supreme Court as the court only spoke about the rules and regulations to be followed during the students Union elections. He said, "It has not been a contempt of court; so I am not in a trouble in contempt of court."

On growing Naxal problem in the country, Congress General Secretary said, "My view on this matter is that the states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa is that; governments are not reaching to the population. That is one cause for the Naxal problem. I think the governments need to get development of the people. Wherever you find development is taking place, wherever the people are involved in political system or involved in the democratic system, Naxalism will not take over. That is my personal view. Seeing that the government has taken very strict measures in countering Naxalism and a lot of progress has been made in some states; I am sure a lot of progress will be made by the government of India.

I think there are experts in the government who are knowledgeable about how specifically to combat Naxalism; I am not an expert on Naxalism and I am not going to explain to you how I feel Naxalism should be combated. There are specialists who do that. As I already said, there is a connection between Naxalism and lack of ability of local governments to reach to the people. And as somebody involved in politics I would say that the more involved the people are in a political system, the better, there are less likely chances that Naxalism is taking place."

On the participation of youth in the politics he said, "The idea behind what we are doing here in KSU election or the Youth Congress elections is not directly linked to this but the idea behind this is the participation of youngsters in politics. We feel that youngsters should have a voice in politics and we also feel that the best way to give youngsters a voice in politics is to give them the democratically elected organization. That is the idea we are trying out in the KSU, in the NSUI or in the Youth Congress."

When asked about the response of his recent Tamil Nadu tour, Congress General Secretary said, "What the youngsters of Tamil Nadu are feeling about the Youth Congress is that over a million have joined the Youth Congress. So that should be the extremely positive disposition for the congress. We still have not calculated exactly how many members have joined in Tamil Nadu but we do know that there are over a million. A million is a huge number. So we are very positive. I think there are two issues here; first one is to be positively predisposed to the congress and the second issue is that they feel, as I have spoken to the lot of students, we had election already in JNU, they feel that the first time they have a voice in electing their own leaders. No other youth political organization in the country allows that. We are only one who allows it. That is also why a very large number of students and youngsters are joining us. I mean I give you an idea about the membership of Youth Congress in Punjab. We had about 30,000 members before our election and the moment we declared the election and carried out membership campaign, number grew to three and half lakhs; where we had first election. In Gujarat, we had similar numbers; 35,000 members in Gujarat. We had election; we have seven and a half lakhs. In Tamil Nadu, we have told you a million; we have not calculated the number yet but I try to point out that we interact and whichever state we go to, our number goes increasing. We started with three and half lakh members, we estimate that we have gone to thirteen lakhs members. And the expectation that the people have; I am extremely impressed by the way the students have, the desire to enter politics; I am extremely impressed by. I fully believe in them; so I don't believe that I should be giving them specific direction that you will have only highly educated leaders. They have to choose them. I am only a medium. I am not going to make a decision for the youngsters in the Youth Congress. They are going to make their decision."

On the representation of SCs, STs and minorities in the Youth Congress and NSUI he said, "Our system is designed in such a way that it ensures that. We have explained in detail to the press in Kerala what our system looks like. That our system is not a winner or taker away system. So one man does not win the election. The system is; the electing a committee and in that committee there are mandatory places for women, mandatory places for SCs, mandatory places for STs and mandatory places for weaker sections. So, in our election you will not have result where SCs, STs, the minority communities will not have a place; it can not happen. And we design the system in this manner. In fact in Gujarat, we had the opposite problem. In our election in Gujarat in the tribal areas, the tribals swept everything; and the non-tribals were saying that the system would be unfair to them. So our system positively discriminates towards weaker sections."

Speaking on the availability of opportunities for the poor he said, " For me there is only one difference and this is the way I see the world. Regarding weaker section, only thing is that people lack opportunities. That is the only difference. The difference between me and the poorest person in this country or the difference between you and the poorest person in this country, the only difference as far as I am concerned, there is no difference in capability, there is no difference in understanding; the only difference is difference in opportunity. We have the opportunity, we went to the university; which university you go to? (Asking a journalist):You studied in Hyderabad, you went to Hyderabad, studied in the University of Hyderabad and you had lot of opportunities; that's why you are sitting here and we are talking. There are millions of people in this country, just like you and me as intelligent, as smart as you; who have not had the opportunity to go to a university. That is the only difference; there is no other difference."