“Proud of the Poor…..” – Rahul Gandhi

I liked the statement made by Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi family (akin to the Kennedy family in the US) yesterday, namely, “We are proud of the poor of India. We believe in the poor people of India and they (the opposition) are ashamed of them”. We all know that it is election time and that every politician worth his name is trying to be pro poor, secular, patriot, savior of the nation, etc. I liked this statement by Rahul Gandhi because it comes from the heart and he means every word he has said. If it had not been for the Congress, right since Nehru’s time, followed by Indira Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and then various non-Gandhi Congressmen who have ruled India from Delhi for around 55 years of the 62 years after independence, India would not have remained poor you know. The policy of the Congress has always been to keep the poor in poverty, bring in various schemes for poverty alleviation, slogans such as “garibi hatao”, “roti, kapada aur makaan”, etc and then go on and enrich themselves through all schemes meant for the poor. Just compare the wealth of each sitting MP from last election to this election – everyone of them has increased his/her wealth by a minimum of 300%! Some of them by over a 1000% - now do you understand how true Rahul Gandhi’s statement is?

The Congress, for that matter any of the other political parties too, would endorse Rahul Gandhi’s statement because they too believe in sloganeering during elections and filling their own pockets so that the next ‘n’ generations don’t have to worry about their own poverty! Of course the “opposition” is ashamed of the poor! They claim to alleviate poverty or to introduce economic measures to alleviate poverty.

The Congressmen have always believed in the “mai-baap” sarkar, they have still not got over the mentality of being ruled by the British, hence their belief that the poor are their subjects and they need to take care of them. They definitely have taken care of them over the last 62 years by ensuring they remain poor and uneducated, so that come election, the politicians can go and promise them free rice, free wheat, free electricity and water and so on and so forth. They will go on a foundation stone laying spree for new roads, bridges, factories which will remain as such till the next elections – one should enter the business of making beautiful foundation stones – election time would see the sale of scores of such stones! Making promises is the forte of our politicians and delivering on them is the job of the next government. Once elected their job is to ensure that their own future generations never remain poor. The easiest thing to offer for free is something which does not belong to you, so tax payers money keeps being poured into such schemes where delivery and accountability are not asked for, as that would entail exposing the politicians themselves!

This is not a litany against the Congress, as I believe that the entire current crop of politicians belonging to different political ideologies all have one common agenda - getting power to further their own individual agendas – nation has never been a priority. There are just a handful of politicians who actually think of the nation first and then about themselves- with the grace of God more such people will join the mainstream of politics to change the moral as well economic fabric of the nation. Vote for change – cast your vote for the person – not the party!