Reiterating that he doesn't want to become a “hard-nose politician which is a sad thing”, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said that he becoming Prime Minister of this country is an irrelevant question and his focus is to give voice to the one billion plus Indians.
“I got press guys asking when you are getting married. Somebody else saying, boss, when are you going to be the Prime Minister. Somebody saying, no your are not going to be PM, somebody say may be you will be PM. There is good possibility…These are irrelevant questions. It's all smoke.”
“It is like the American polling charts. 47.3 per cent of possibility that he might be Prime Minister,” he laughed.
“The only relevant question in this country is how can we give our people voiceIJ” he said addressing the Annual General Meeting of Confederation of Indian Industry which had audience of business barons like Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ajay Shriram, Adi Godrej, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Azim Premji, Rahul Bajaj, Navin Jindal, Malvinder Singh and others.
His comment echoes with Congress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi who two days back said that the present model (of power sharing between party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) is an ideal model that can continue for future.
Gandhi, who was addressing such a huge gathering of business barons and other delegates for the first time, took the floor with tremendous confidence and great ease. With mannerism of a seasonal politician, he refrained from structured answers.
Gandhi praised India Inc for doing a tremendous job in the last few years in building the image of the country.
Sharing his views on “the India he sees”, he said “India is bursting with dreams and ideas. The spirit of India has to move forward. We have to channelize the energy of India's youngsters. We need better physical structure for India's growth. Corporates must help government build infrastructure. Government private partnership is the key to growth”.
In his trademark style, he made a veiled comment on BJP's policies, saying that “politics of alienating communities affects growth” and the Congress stood for inclusive growth.
later in the extended chat session, taking a stroll from one corner of the podium to the other Gandhi scion said that India is not an Elephant, it is Beehive where a billion people are trying to break the shackles of a complex structure. That had the audience cracking.
“There are two ways this movement can go. It can go harmoniously or it can go disruptively. The idea of the Congress party is that it should go harmoniously and everybody should move together and happily,” he said.
“I've come here because I believe in you. I cannot move forward without you. let us work together to build this brave empowered new India. Adiji said in his speech that I am someone who spends a lot of time with the poor. India cannot go forward without partnership. Poor is one component, business another and the middle class is another component,” he said earlier in his speech, seeking industry support to build required infrastructure.
Joking away his political interests, Gandhi said it was an “accident of faith” that he happened to be in the position. “It is an accident of faith. I happen to come from a chain of persons. It is in my DNA. I have been put in a situation... Boss you have to do it,” he laughed.
Clad in his usual attire, Gandhi looked more comfortable with extended question and answer session than his scripted speech. He kept his focus on inclusive growth, creating physical and knowledge infrastructure to support the one billion plus people and their ideas.
He had the loudest applaud of the audience, when he said, “The idea we love is of the guy on the horse. He is going to come charging through and everything in India will be alight.” He alone can't do this, and he wants to help the country move away from the old idea people have a voice,” he said. “If you expect Manmohan Singhji or anyone else to solve everything, you can keep expecting,” he quipped taking shots at Narendra Modi.