“For me, the Congress party is now my life, the people of India are my life, and I will fight for the people of India and for this party.” -Rahul Gandhi
What is on his mind? Does he stand by what he believes in? Read on to know his latest move in favour of his party and the country.
The event
On the 4th of July the Vice President of the oldest political party in the country was seen surrounded with some of the top chiefs of multi-millionaire start-ups and e-commerce firms in his Tughlaq residence in Delhi.
The discussion
Gandhi seemed to be impressed with the start-up industry of the country due to their ability to create jobs without seeking help from the government for their infrastructure requirements and doing so at the minimal use of natural resources. Well this was all usual.
On the flip-side, something no one expected happened. Gandhi was extremely versatile with the entire gamut of start-ups, not just in India but all over the world. With this he made a huge impression on the founders and co-founders present and believe it or not he was successful in pleasing them.
The discussion was ideally supposed to end in 45 minutes but he spoke for 2 long hours! Is he trying to better the political standing of himself and his party?
Who all were present?
The founders of Snapdeal (Kunal Bahl), Micromax (Rahul Sharma), Ola (Ankit Bhati) were the ones who attended the meeting. Some of the co-founders of BookMyShow, Hungama also marked their presence.
The purpose
A few months ago satirical remarks were made at Mr. Gandhi on social networking sites. For instance:
-Rahul Gandhi has sincere naiveté, I would definitely vote for him as house captain in my school.
-The Congress wave coming…wave where people’s hands move to wave goodbye!
-Can’t win elections. Can’t garner support. Can’t speak in Parliament. Well, Rahul has got a proper training from the PM.
He seemed to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
He tried rectifying it by speaking up in the Lok Sabha against the BJP Government accusing them of abandoning farmers and criticized the Modi Government saying that it wasn’t able to bring “acche din” as promised.
He spoke on the agrarian crises and people praised him for his speech. The public seemed to be generally impressed as it was seldom that they saw him make appearances in public.
Soon the hashtag #RahulRoar started trending. On the other hand there were a few takers on the #PappuMeows too.
After the hustle and bustle on social networking sites it feels like Mr. Gandhi wants to prove his worth. That was probably what was on his mind. To win back the trust of all the Indians.
According to Gandhi, the purpose of the meeting was simple. He simply wanted to get to know the technicalities of running a start-up and wanted to encourage the founders and co-founders. Further he wanted to get acquainted with the issues start-ups face and present it in the next policy planning meeting so that the government could help tackle the same.
This seems quite normal and a correct thing to do, doesn’t it? However what we don’t know is whether he is trying to win back the love of the Indians or genuinely helping the industry.
His contribution in the democratization of the Youth Congress has been massive. This way he surely does keep himself occupied and within his comfort zone. However shouldn’t he contribute to this scale at the national level and help his party? Is it him or his party to blame? And is it the conflict that makes him disappear quite frequently from India? I think it is high time he took advantage of his descent and brought about some change.
We all know that Modi had promised to help the e-commerce ahead of the 2014 elections. So has Rahul taken this opportunity to please the nation too?
The question which now remains is whether Rahul Gandhi is able to deliver more than what Modi could when it comes to the concerns faced by the start-ups.
Let’s just wait and watch.
