As confusion prevailed over his offer to resign following his party's Lok Sabha polls rout, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday struck a hopeful note, saying the electoral debacle was an opportunity to introspect, and declared that he has no doubt that the party is going to be rejuvenated.
“...and as ex-president (Sonia Gandhi) said, it is an opportunity for us to introspect, to look inwards, to try and see as to what went wrong, to try to rejuvenate ourselves. I have no doubt that the Congress party is going to rejuvenate,” Rahul Gandhi said, addressing the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Central Hall of Parliament.
This was Rahul Gandhi's first address to party leaders since he declared that he wanted to step down owning responsibility for the electoral debacle, at the Congress Working Committee meeting held on May 25. At the CWC meeting, Rahul Gandhi had insisted on resigning and asked the party's highest decision making body to look for his replacement as party chief.
Addressing the CPP, Rahul Gandhi gave the new MPs a pep talk, saying the number may be just 52, but they will fight the BJP every single inch. He referred to the party's worst ever Lok Sabha performance of 2014, when the Congress had managed to win just 44 seats, and said, “I felt that the BJP has 282, we are 45. What are we going to do with 45? But I must tell you, very quickly, within a couple of weeks, I realised that 45 Congress members are enough to take on 282 BJP members.”
“It does not matter who is standing against these 52 members. These 52 members are going to fight the BJP every single inch...and that applies to the members of the Rajya Sabha as well,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi, who is said to have been a picture of dejection at the CWC meeting, sought to enthuse the party MPs on Saturday, saying it was time for them to “enjoy yourself”, shout a little more than usual and be a little more aggressive.
“Last time, if the speaker used to give us five minutes, this time it may be two minutes, but in those two minutes, we will put forth what the Congress party believes. We will put forth our defence of the Constitution,” he said. Rahul Gandhi, however, noted that he missed the stalwarts of the party who were in the Lok Sabha last time but failed to win the election this time round.
Also read
- SC stays proceedings of defamation case against Rahul Gandhi in Jharkhand court
- Explained: What is Rahul Gandhi’s ‘White t-shirt movement’?
- Rahul Gandhi’s ‘fighting Indian state’ remark sparks row; BJP says Congress’s ‘ugly truth’ exposed
- ‘Indian education system has serious problems’: Rahul Gandhi tells IIT-Madras students
- Actions harming opposition unity, will ask allies to expel Congress from INDIA bloc: AAP
His words of encouragement for the MPs are significant since it is being speculated that he might be nominated as the Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha in case he continues to be adamant on stepping down as party president. The party has failed to make the cut to get the post of the leader of opposition since the minimum number of MPs required by a party to be granted the designation is 54.
Emphasising that the opposition to the Narendra Modi government is a battle of ideologies, he said to the MPs that they were fighting for the Constitution and for “the right of every single individual in this country, regardless of the skin colour, regardless of his religion, regardless of his gender, regardless of his state.”
“The people who are opposing us in the Parliament house, they use hatred, they use anger to fight us. And as I said throughout the election, there is only one way to fight hatred and anger. That is the love and affection and the compassion of the Congress party. That is why the BJP says it wants a Congress-mukt Bharat because without the Congress, they will have a free run,” he said.
Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi, who is learnt to have been extremely critical of three senior leaders in the CWC meeting for having put their sons before the interests of the party, on Saturday pointed at the external reasons for the party's poll debacle. “You fought a very good election....You are probably the first people in this country's independent history who have fought an election not against a political party but against every single institution in this country,” the Congress president said.
He said he wanted to especially thank the senior leaders present at the meeting. “You have given a tremendous service in fighting for the Constitution and now you are fighting every single institution,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The Congress' persistent charge against the Modi regime has been that it has manipulated and misused all Constitutional bodies to target the opposition.
