New Delhi: The country is in a way “fatigued” under the Narendra Modi dispensation and is looking for a way out, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday and asserted that his party alone can show the path forward.
In his brief inaugural address at the 84th Congress Plenary Session, he launched a scathing attack on the NDA government, accusing it of spreading hatred and anger, and failing to create jobs and address distress in the farm sector.
The Congress party alone can unite the country and show it the path forward, he said, adding that the difference between the ruling dispensation and his party was that while they spread anger and hatred, “we spread love and brotherhood”.
He also said the Congress party under him would take the seniors and the youth together as the tradition of the party was to embrace change without forgetting its past and legacy.
“If the youth will take the Congress party forward, the party will not move forward without the experienced leaders. So, my task is to unite the seniors and the youth, to give a new direction,” he said.
Representatives of the party have fought hard to keep the Congress ideology alive, he said, adding that the senior leaders of the party would guide the youth and take the party forward.
Taking a jibe at the present dispensation, Gandhi said that crores of youths in the country, looking up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are not finding anything and did not know where will the jobs come from and farmers do not know when they will get fair price of their produce.
“So the country is in a way fatigued, is looking for a way out. And I am saying this from the bottom of my heart that only the Congress can show the path forward.
“What is the difference between the Congress party and the ruling party? The one big difference is they spread anger and hatred, we spread love and brotherhood,” he said.
He reiterated that this country belongs to all. “It belongs to each religion, caste, each individual. And whatever the Congress will do, it will do for the entire country, for each of the country’s individual. It will not leave anyone behind,” he said.
Gandhi said the party’s work was to unite people and the Congress’s ‘hand’ symbol is the only symbol that can do so.
“It is the only symbol that can take the country forward. The power of this ‘hand’ lies in you. If the country is to be united, it is we and the people who will have to do it together,” he said, adding that the aim of the plenary is to show the path forward to the country and the Congress party.
Some Congress leaders also urged party men to shed their differences and get united in their fight against the BJP, saying “only the Congress can defeat the Congress and not anyone else”.
This was stated by senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge as well as Ajay Maken, who said no one has the power to defeat the Congress and only the Congress can defeat the Congress.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also said that “Hindutva is not Hinduism” and “we must not surrender the Hindu space to the BJP”.
The two-day plenary session is being attended by senior Congress leaders including former party president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
