Persistent demands to give Congress’s “youth icon” Rahul Gandhi a bigger role in national politics grew louder on Monday as the party’s senior leader, union home minister P Chidambaram, urged “older leaders” to “step back and give way to young blood”. This time, the statement came in the direct presence of the 41-year-old Amethi MP at a nation-wide political get-together.
“One half of the country’s population is under the age of 25 years,” Chidambaram said, stressing the importance of giving Gandhi the centrestage of politics. He was addressing the first-ever national convention, Buniyaad, of elected Youth Congress office-bearers.
On his part, Gandhi, who shared the venue with Chidambaram, called upon the young leaders to tackle the country’s “biggest corruption”: a rot in the political system. This, the Congress general secretary said, can be got rid off only through influx of youth into politics.
Quite a few senior Congress leaders made a beeline to this Gandhi-backed event. They included defence minister A K Antony, AICC media in-charge Janardan Dwivedi, minister of state for telecom Sachin Pilot and his counterpart in the home ministry, Jitendra Singh.
The two-day convention is set to conclude tomorrow. Significantly, in a possible indication of things to come, it will see attendance from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul’s all-powerful mother.
The gathering on Monday was repeatedly reminded about the significance of the event, as Youth Congress leaders, including its new president Rajiv Satav, pointed out that the revamped body was the country’s only political organisation that elected its office-bearers elected — and not nominated them, as is the norm.
Gandhi, who had initiated the task of revamping the organisation since the time he took over in 2007, exhorted the youth leaders to always remember that they were the representatives of the new generation. “You are here today due to your own ability. You have been elected by one crore people,” he added, amid cheers. “No one can oust you. Only on grounds of indiscipline or anti-party activity can you be removed. Not even Rahul Gandhi has the power to remove you,” he added, dramatically.
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Describing “corruption in politics” as the “biggest corruption”, Gandhi urged the youth to take a plunge into politics to clean the political system. “You cannot wage a war against corruption, if you — the youth — do not change the political system,” he added.
Chidambaram, who stole a march over his party colleagues when he attended the inaugural session in presence of the Congress scion, recalled that it was 40 years ago he attended his first Congress convention -- in Kolkata. “Even that time, I had felt that the older leadership must make way for younger leaders,” he said.
The upcoming Assembly elections in five states was topmost in the minds of most leaders who addressed the convention. As for Chidambaram, he described next year’s Uttar Pradesh polls as “most formidable” — and hailed Gandhi for taking on not just “caste-based” parties but also the far right and the extreme left ones. “Ultimately the Congress party, the Youth Congress and Rahul Gandhi will triumph,” he added.
On Monday’s meet caps a much-touted exercise to thoroughly revamp the ruling party’s young cadre — an exercise that is now three years old.