India political heir Rahul Gandhi condemns elitism
BY Associated Press
Monday, January 21, 2013
1/21/13 at 6:21 AM
Rahul Gandhi, the heir to India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, said he would work to transform the country by decentralizing power after he was elevated to the governing Congress Party's No. 2 post.
His career embodies Congress' reliance on the Gandhi family name, but the man widely expected to be the party's candidate for prime minister in next year's elections condemned elitism as "the tragedy of India" and vowed to work to expand access to power for ordinary people.
"For me, the Congress Party is my life. The people of India are my life and I will fight for them," Gandhi, a 42-year-old lawmaker, said in his acceptance speech Sunday in the western Indian city of Jaipur, a day after he was appointed the party vice president, a position behind his mother, Sonia Gandhi, who is the Congress Party president.
Rahul Gandhi is the son, grandson and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers.
Reflecting on his eight years while working for the party organization, Rahul Gandhi said India's governmental system was stuck in the past and the answer lay in completely transforming it.
"A handful of people control the entire political space" he said to cheering party workers.
"It doesn't matter how much wisdom you have. If you don't have position, you have nothing. That's the tragedy of India," he said.
Rahul Gandhi also said many Indian youths are angry because they have been excluded from the political class. "We only empower people at the top of the system. We don't believe in empowering all the way to the bottom," he said.
"All the public systems - administration, justice, education and political - are designed to keep people with knowledge out," he said.
Such a system promotes mediocrity, he added.
Original Print Headline: India political heir Rahul Gandhi: No to elitism
Associated Images:
India's Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi stands at a meeting of the party in Jaipur, India, on Sunday. Associated Press
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