Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday urged students to take part in politics to bring in changes in the education system and the society which would help usher bigger changes in the country.
“You need to come and join politics to change the society. Top leadership may not be interested for changes in the present education system, but you need to. You have to participate in the political system,” said Gandhi while interacting with students and youth at the Nehru Yuva Pratisthan here. “I cannot come to Odisha and improve the education system. It is you who can change the system. You have to come into the system and fight for Odisha,” said Gandhi. He regretted that the educational system is under the control of a handful of people. “Now, the educational system is monopolised. If you open up the system, their capitation fee, the source which fetches them lakhs of rupees, will be badly affected and so they will start resisting,” said he.
He also said that like in education the political system has also been monopolised in the country. “If you want to join politics, you have to be a sycophant to the political bosses, be it the Congress, the BJP or any other party. The political system is not open. If a senior leader likes you then you can get a ticket to contest elections….if he/she does not like you then you won’t get it. That system needs to be changed,” said Gandhi, adding that the Congress has started a new practice of collecting feedback from each lok Sabha constituency before selecting its lS candidates.
Replying to a student’s query on the prevailing system of reservation in education, he said the reservation issue is being discussed because there are too few seats in the colleges. “The seats need to be increased so that everyone can avail education irrespective of their class, caste background. The people are only talking about how to distribute the existing number of available seats….nobody discusses how to increase the seats,” Gandhi said.
He also criticised both the State and Central Governments for not providing quality education as well as for not appointing trained teachers for educational institutions in the State. Gandhi also attacked the BJD Government over the huge mining scam. The State Government allowed the loot of its mineral resources to benefit the miners, alleged Gandhi.