Pics: Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod
Kasargod, Apr 5: AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi addressed a Congress election rally here on Saturday April 5 and said that Congress is the only party which balances prosperity and fairness to ensure overall development in the country.
"For any society to move forward you need two things - prosperity and fairness. Prosperity for a few people breaks down very quickly, and fairness for everybody without prosperity also breaks down. If you look back in history, the popular emperors were those who could create a balance between prosperity and fairness for their people," he said.
"At the national level there are broadly three ideas that are presented to the people - The NDA idea is of India Shining, where in 5,10, or 15 business people have everything and all the power, and where prosperity is limited to a very few people. On the other side you have the Left vision for people - for them prosperity, business and industries are of no consequence. They talk about fairness but actually what they are talking about is to make everyone poor.
"It is only the Congress that balances prosperity and fairness. We bring together industry and the poor people. We say that there should be industry in Kasargod but people of Kasargod should benefit from the industry," he said.
Appreciating the political system of Kerala, he said, "I travelled to all the states in the country and I think the politics of Kerala, the participation of the people in politics of Kerala, the participation of panchayats in politics here is something that rest of the country has to learn from.
"I think the Congress party can learn from the Congress party in Kerala and how it operates," he added.
"Of course there are shortcomings in the political system of Kerala - the biggest shortcoming is the opponent of the Congress party in the state. There should be no violence in the politcs of Kerala. There should be no place for intimidation. I would like to thank the people of Kerala for giving a vision of the future politics to the rest of the country," he said, adding that he was inspired by the knowleged and way of working by the panchayat heads in Kerala.
"Oommen Chandy is the chief minister of Kerala, but the state is not run by one man by millions and millions of Keralites. In fact Chandy gets inspiration from the peope of Kerala - he listens to the people, he goes to them and understands their problems. He is just a senior leader of Kerala," he added.
'Kasargod should be known as industrial centre of the world'
"We can see a lot of potential in Kasargod - you have land, you have the best people, you have rail, sea and road access. Yesterday I went to Mangalore and said that just like how Bangalore is known in the rest of the world as a techinical city, Mangalore should also be known. And today I would like to say from here that in the next 5-10 years Kasargod should be known to the rest of the world as an industrial centre.
"That is why we have given a young candidate (Siddiq) to Kasargod who can think about the future of Kasargod, who can have a long vision for the future of Kasargod. I am also being a little bit selfish here, as the other reason I am telling you to elect him is that I want to have him sitting with me in the Lok Sabha as a capable youngster, so that not only can he bring issues of Kasargod forward but also help in moving the country towards a new future, so that he can help the farmers of this region and we can be as responsive as possible."
'Opposition surprised at our pace of growth'
"If you look at the last 10 years of UPA, not only have we brought MNREGA, but right to food, right to education and right to information. We have also helped the country grow at the fastest rate possible. Our opposition parties are surprised at the result of our policies, they dont understand how can we grow so fast and still help the poor people. What they don't realize, what they need to understand is that sucess always comes from partnership. Success has come to UPA in the last ten years because we built a partnership between business and the poor people, because we built partnership between different people - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs - and different states and regions. When we brought the right-based paradigms - right to work, RTE, RTI - we gave it to everybody irrespective of caste, region and gender," Rahul said.
Attacking the BJP, he said, "The Congress party tries to reduce anger in society while the opposition particularly the BJP tries to play on anger. They (BJP) want to divide you, make you fight and take advantage of the fight. The real aim for making you fight is to take away your resources, to take away your wealth and hand it over to a few people. They feel that when a few people get all the power you will not question them. If you look at their campaign, one of their leaders said 'I will be India's 'chowkidar' (guard). In the Congress we dont want to give one chowkidar, we want to give hundreds of chowkidars. We want to give you power through right-based paradigms."
He reiterated the statements made during his address in Mangalore on Friday April 4 and said that if Congress comes to power, it will entirely focus on shifting 70 crore who are above poverty line but below middle class to the latter stratum of society, through education.
"We will provide two new rights to the poor - right to healthcare and free medicines, and right to shelter," he added.
'India should challenge China in manufacturing'
He also spoke about the proposed industrial corridor spanning the length and breadth of the country that will provide jobs to the youth and said, "Today China is the manufacturing capital of the world. We want India to become the manufacturing capital and challenge China. We want watches, cameras and shoes that are made in China to be one day made in Kasargod. Thousands of industries will come up in the corridor and it will become the backbone of our manufacturing."
Women empowerment
Addressing the women in the audience, he said, "The role of Kerala women in politics and social sector is known to the rest of the country. The role of Kerala women in looking after the sick people is known in the entire world. I want to thank you, but I want to also we are going to spend a lot of time in empowering you. We will get you places in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha with a bill that will give you 33 percent both those Houses. I want to see more young ladies leading the Congress party in Kerala."
He also assured rehabilitation for the people suffering from the effects of endosulfan.
Concluding his address, he said, "Vote for CPI(M) is indirectly a vote for the BJP. CPI(M) will not play a role in national politics and hopefully not in Kasargod politics either."
Chief minister Oommen Chandy, Kasargod candidate from Congress-backed UDF Siddiq and others were present.