During my last speeches in Madhya Pradesh I had talked about my mother and the incident of her falling sick during the debate of Food Security Bill in the Parliament. Normally people do not talk about such personal things during election time. When I went back to Delhi, my mother asked me why I talked about her in a public speech. She told me not talk to talk about her in future and told me to talk about myself, instead. So today I want to do that; talking about myself.
Wherever I go, I talk about development, riots and other matters, but normally do not talk anything personal. When I was coming here, one of our leaders told me about the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to Rajasthan. He told me that Rajiv ji visited here on 1987 October, 31st. I wondered as I knew that it was never possible that he had visited Rajasthan on that particular date because as all of you know, it was on October 31st, my grand mother was assassinated. In fact, Rajiv Gandhi had visited here on Aug 31. I used to attack BJP for its divisive politics for spreading hatred among Hindus and Muslims. But I never told you why I was doing so. Today I am going to tell you about it.
When myself and Priyanka were kids, my father was very strict and we were scared of him. For me, it was my grandmother, who used to protect me on many occasions.. For example, I did not like palak sabji. But my father used to put the dish in front of me and I am supposed to have it. What my grandmother used to do was, she would spread open the news paper in front of my father, blocking his vision from me. I used to shift the palak sabji from my plate to grandma’s using the opportunity. That was my relation with my grandma.
She was the Prime Minister of the country and that time I never knew what power a Prime Minister possesses; for me she was just my grandmother. There was an assistant for grandmamma named Nathuram. Everyone was scared of my grandma, but I was not, as she was my protector. Sometimes, Nathguram used to come to me and to know my grandma’s mood... and i used to tell him whether her mood was good or bad.
I also had two-three friends there; they used to look after my grandma. Their names were Satwant Singh, Beant Singh, Kehar Singh and Balbir Singh. I was very close to them; one of them had taught me how to play badminton. They also helped me in my warm up exercises. In fact I had trusted them.
One day when I was on my routine morning walk in the garden, Beant Singh had come to me and asked me where does my grandma sleep? I felt that question a bit disturbing. I did not like that question from him. I did not give him proper answer as I smelled something fishy in that. He also asked me whether I was happy with the security arrangements of my grandma; he also gave me some safety tips to escape from any sudden attack.
I had forgotten about that and very later only I recollected those. Then I realised that Satwant Singh and Beant Singh had planned earlier also, prior to her assassination, to kill my grandma during a Deepawali. You all know what had happened after that. My grandma was assassinated and many of my Sikh brothers sitting in front me know what all took place during that time.
I lost my grandma. I still remember, I was in school and was in a geography class. Someone from my house came to my school and wanted to take me back home. When I telephoned to my house, I heard the servant maid was screaming. I asked whether there is anything wrong with my parents. She said everything alright with them. Then asked about my grandmother and without saying anything she put the phone down. When I asked my security persons about my grandma they told me that though she had received bullets, she was fine. I felt terribly worried. It was like my heart had been torn apart. My legs were trembling. I picked up Priyanka also from her school and both of us went home.
When I reached home, I saw blood of grandma at one room and the blood of my ‘friends’ in other room. I was angry with my said ‘friends’ Beant Singh and Satwant Singh for a long time. It took me long – about 10-15 years- to free myself from that anger. My anger came down as I later understood that those people were blind with anger. They were very angry. Today, I also know that, the anger inside my Sikh brothers also has come down.
It takes a long time to get rid of the anger. To become angry is very easy but to control it takes time to douse it. Few days back, a MLA from Punjab had come to meet me. He told me he feels so elated to sit with me in my room. When I asked him why he said so, he replied that he would have killed me if he had met me before 20 years because he was angry that time.
Why I am telling you this now, you may wonder. No one gets angry so easily. In fact people provoke them and make them angry. Some political parties do so and that is why I am against BJP’s politics. They spread divisive ideology for their narrow political gains. I had gone to Muzaffarnagar. I interacted with both Muslims and Hindus. I could see myself in them. I was seeing my face in their tears. I want all Indians live together, fight together and die together.
What does BJP do? They spark communal fire whether it is in Muzaffarnagar, Gujarat, UP, Kashmir or elsewhere. Then we have to go to the people to put the fire out. This is harmful for our country. My grandmother and father were assassinated and tomorrow I also may get killed; but I just don’t care.
This was what I wanted to tell you and now I want to tell you something about Rajasthan and Gehlot Ji.
One gets angry when he is hungry. Women get worried if their children do not get sufficient food. The youth get angry if they fail to secure a job. We understand it. That is why we initiated granting rights to the people like Right to Job and Right to food. We gave right to job to address the issue of unemployment. Food Security Bill ensures you food grain at Rs. 1 per kg. We enacted this law to eradicate hunger from our country.
Congress party has initiated a politics of granting people’s right in its past 9 years’ rule. We also enacted Land Acquisition Bill to benefit the farmers as well as the labourers working in those lands.
We know there is hunger in our Country. There are rich and poor sections in India. We need a partnership - the poor and rich need to join hands and take the country forward. Without enterprises, industrial units we can not move ahead.
BJP talks about roads but Congress built three times more roads than them. We not only constructed roads but also gave the rights to job and food to the poor.
I also want to tell you something about Churu. PCC President was saying that this place suffers from both the highest and the lowest temperatures. There are issues of water scarcity also here and we have therefore extended the Indira Gandhi canal to this place.
Gehlot Ji has done some tremendous works for the welfare of the people here like improvement in electricity, pension schemes for senior citizens, and free medicines for the poor including for animals. His government here wants to take everyone along in the process of dev elopement. We believe in inclusive growth.
Since you want me to talk more, let me share some more thoughts with you. I want to tell you about the future and foresight as well.
I am not here just to win the elections. I want to assure you that Churu is going to get more developmental projects and I am sure this will benefit the people here, especially the youth. I know that I made a long speech and since I am in good mood now, I want to continue it a bit more. The youth here may have to go to go to various places in our country and even abroad.
Majority of manufacturing takes place in China. Even if I check the mike here, I might see a ‘made in China’ label in it too. Major countries like USA, England, Japan, Italy want manufacturing be taken place in China or elsewhere. India also can be a good option. We are improving infrastructure across the country including your Churu. Churu will soon have more factories in the near future. The youth here will not only get jobs but also will have opportunity to go abroad and will make India proud.
We need partnership to achieve this too. We need to build up a healthy partnership of the poor and the rich –a partnership of the farmers, workers and the government.
We need to reform the existing political system also in the coming 10 years. Today the doors of our system are closed for the common people and all decisions are being taken by a handful of people in all parties. You all have mobiles phone in your pockets – thanks to Rajiv Ji. Similarly, I want the keys of political decisions also in the pockets of our youth.
Positive changes will take place in all political parties after 2014. Take it from me. All parties will be forced to do so. Thank you.
See More :- Rahul Gandhi
No comments:
Post a Comment