Rahul's vision for a new India

• When we play the politics of alienating communities we all suffer. Maintaining inclusive growth is a win-win for everybody; the biggest danger is excluding the poor, minorities and Dalits
• Anger, hatred and prejudice do not help growth. When the seeds of disharmony are sown the dreams of the people are severely disrupted
• I am not a hard-nosed politician, but happened to be in politics by accident of fate. Dismissed as irrelevant talk of his becoming PM, "they are all smoke". The only relevant question is how we can give our people voice
• Give all power to one man, he cannot solve our problems. Give billion people the power to solve the problems, it can be done in a jiffy
• Education must meet the needs of the time; universities and industry must interact

New Delhi: Bringing about systemic changes is more important than solely depending on an individual, who comes riding on a horse and solves all the problems. This was the sum and substance of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi's maiden interaction with business honchos at the CII on Thursday, where he chose to focus on "inclusive" growth and the need to decentralise the Indian power structure. Preferring not to go into specifics, the Congress heir-apparent chose to spell out his broad vision of making India a vibrant country, which is possible only when power is transferred to the billion people of this country.

In his hour-long speech that included the Q and A session, Rahul Gandhi did not indicate as to whom he had on mind when he referred to a man on the horse � Narendra Modi or himself. Being secretive, as usual on his becoming the prime ministerial candidate, Rahul said people frequently ask him when he is getting married and when he is becoming Prime Minister. "These are irrelevant questions. It's all smoke," he remarked. He said, "It was like American polling charts, 47.3 per cent of possibility that he might be Prime Minister. The only relevant question in this country is how we can give our people voice."

Rahul spoke from his heart and came out as an honest person, who had vision about India, though he had no immediate and out-of-the-box solutions to empower the deprived and the weaker sections of the people. Unlike Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who had listed out his achievements to the youth by talking about the Gujarat Model of development at the SRCC College in Delhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who hinted at more reforms at the same venue on Wednesday, Rahul was more philosophical and idealistic.

Projecting himself as the messiah of the poor, Rahul Gandhi, this time round, shifted his focus away from Kalawati to Girish, the migrant youth, whom he met on the Gorakhpur Express train to Mumbai and walked down to his residence, passing through the bylanes of Mumbai.

He underscored the point that there were millions of young people, who had dreams in their hearts, though they had no money in their pockets. He said that India had the largest pool of human capital and what required was to channelise this reaction. Without naming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul said 200 million people, the Minorities, cannot be excluded. "Whenever we exclude women, the minorities, Dalits, we have always fallen back," he said.

Rahul complimented the industrialists for changing the face of India. "The image of India has changed due to our corporate. Nobody says India only has elephants on roads. The spirit of this country is forward moving and brave. We are optimists," he remarked, emphasising that there was a need to accelerate optimism among the people. He stressed the need to change the education system in the country and that it should be linked to generating more jobs. "Our problem is not joblessness, but lack of skills," he stressed, pointing out that the industry should have a role in the education curriculum.

"Do we have structures in university that allows you to impact what IIT is teaching," he asked, focusing on the lack of connect between the industry and the education. Rahul said, "If we wait on Manmohan Singh to deliver on these, then we will keep waiting forever. One man cannot deliver on the aspirations of a billion people. Not Montek Singh Ahluwalia, not Sam Pitroda, nor I can deliver on such massive scale. It is a massive enterprise that has to be also driven by the energy of Indian corporates.

Rahul Gandhi said his aides had advised him not to use the India-China comparisons as they are mostly cliched. However, Rahul Gandhi said, "I don't listen to them. Reason why I don't listen to them is because of my experience. Think about it. China applies power by hand � they are a manufacturing behemoth. India, on the other hand, applies people's power � the power of the mind. Forget the elephant and dragon analogy. India's is the power of the beehive." Rahul Gandhi emphasised the need to give power to the people, saying a beehive is stronger than an elephant. One man riding a horse cannot solve the country's problems, but it is a collective effort.

"The architecture we have to build is to connect the grassroots with the political system, open the political system. The legislative engine in India consists of 5,000 people who determine everything, how many people choose them? How can you talk of Centre-State relationship when only MPs and MLAs are defining the Vidhan Sabhas? People talk about individuals, large number of problems can be sorted out by the lower level people. Give a billion people the power to solve a problem, it'll be solved in a jiffy," he remarked.

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