Rahul Gandhi pledges to work for better Meghalaya

Seeking support for his party, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi pledged that he and his mother Sonia Gandhi along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would work for a progressive and better Meghalaya under a Congress-ruled government.

"Congress president, the Prime Minister and I, will work to help Meghalaya. We will support Meghalaya and we will support your voice in Delhi. We will do everything we can to make this state progress faster," Rahul Gandhi told a rally in Shillong.

Lauding Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and the state government under the Congress rule, Rahul said, "You have your government in Delhi which wants to support the growth of Meghalaya. I want both these governments to work together to bring massive developments to the state."

Hinting that the state suffers from corruption in high places, Rahul Gandhi reminded how his father had said only 15 paisa reaches the last man in the country out of one rupee spent, and said, "We need to change so that our people can benefit." Praising the unique grassroots democracy practice by indigenous tribals in the state which gives the common man his voice, Rahul said, "The west talks about democracy and over here, you have had traditional democracy for hundreds and hundreds of years.

"What is democracy? Democracy is the voice of the people. It is the voice of every person regardless of who he is -- whether rich or poor, and this is what you have taught to the rest of the country," he said. Stating that the vision of the Congress is also in similar lines with the true democracy of the tribal people in Meghalaya, Rahul Gandhi said, "I want to thank you for giving this gift to the country. And we for the last couple of years have been running a government in the country which also tries to listen to the voice of the people before taking decisions."

Assuring that all groups and tribes would be taken into consideration for development in the state, Rahul said, "When we want to talk about development in Meghalaya, we want to say that every single tribe, every single group has to move together forward."  Congress believes that it is everybody's right to have access to development regardless from where they are from or who they are, said Rahul Gandhi. Stating that the decisions on MGNREGA, RTI, or Right to Food, all are the result of listening to the voice of the people, Rahul Gandhi added, "We do this because we understand that every single person's voice is important."