Andalib Akhter / New Delhi
Soon after assuming the post of the India’s oldest Congress party, Rahul Gandhi today charged the BJP with following a ‘politics of hatred and anger’ and said his party would fight it with ‘love and affection’.
In his maiden speech after assuming the post of Congress president, Mr Gandhi, lashing out at the BJP for trying to spread the politics of ‘hatred’, said,”Like many Indians across the country, I am an idealist.. But many of us are disillusioned today with what we see in politics today.
The process of his election as the new Congress chief was completed after the Central Election Authority President Mullapally Ramachandran handed over the Certificate of Election to Rahul Gandhi in a ceremony at 24, Akbar Road, housing the party headquarters.
Today, politics is not being used for the service of the people. It is devoid of kindness and truth. Today politics is used to crush people, not lift them. The moment you challenge the structure of power to stand with the power, you are attacked. To weaken you, they lie and distort.’
“(BJP) breaks, we join, they set fire, we douse it, they spread hate, we spread love, they divide, we bring people together… that is what tells us apart,” says Congress president
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Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka Vadra, and son-in-law Robert Vadra and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh joined the top Congress leadership at the ceremony marked by loud celebrations as scores of Rahul Gandhi supporters danced to the beat of drums, raised slogans, burst firecrackers and distributed sweets outside the party office here.
In his first speech as the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi launched an all-out attack against Modi and the BJP.
“Politics belongs to the people, but today politics is not being used for people. It is not being used to uplift people, but to crush them,” Rahul Gandhi said.
He said many of the countrymen were “disillusioned by politics of our time” as “today, politics is devoid of kindness and truth”.
“The Congress took India to the 21st Century, but the PM, today, is taking us back to the medieval times… We are now being compelled to imagine that businesses can be built without harmony that only one man himself is the voice of reason, and that expertise, experience and knowledge can be cast aside for personal glory,” Rahul Gandhi said.
“You have an example in front of you. Once fire breaks out it is difficult to douse it. That is what we are telling the people of BJP, that if you set the nation on fire it will be difficult to control. Today, the BJP has spread the fire of violence across the country.”
Outside the 24, Akbar Road, Congress Headquarters, a group of colourfully dressed artistes played drums and danced to Punjabi bhangra tunes with party supporters, including men and women, shaking a leg or two and waving Rahul Gandhi’s pictures and Congress flags.