The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is promoting the politics of hate and fear, Rahul Gandhi said yesterday in his first address to party workers after he took over as president of the main opposition Congress.
Gandhi, 47, took over the post of party president from his mother, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, 71, at a ceremony at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
“If you light a fire, it is very difficult to put it out... today the BJP is lighting fires of hate all over the country,” Gandhi said.
“The Congress took India to the 21st century, but the (prime minister) today is taking us back to the medieval times where people are butchered because of who they are, beaten for what they believe in and killed for what they eat.”
Gandhi was referring to attacks on India’s minority communities, especially Muslims, by right-wing Hindu groups since the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power,
soundly defeating the Congress in 2014 elections.
“Foreign policy is in tatters, everything is subservient to one leader, his personal image,” Gandhi said. “They can only defeat us if we back down, we have to stand up to them, the Congress won’t back down.”
Fireworks erupted over the party headquarters drowning out the voice of his mother Sonia as she handed over the reins of power to her son, who now faces the tough task of ousting the BJP government.
Rahul, wearing a long flowing white kurta, smiled and waved from the dais adorned with posters of his late grandmother and father, former prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.
“I accept this position with the deepest humility, with the knowledge that I will always be walking in the shadow of giants,” Gandhi said in his acceptance speech which quickly became an attack on Modi and the BJP.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh said Gandhi was taking over leadership of the party at a time when “there were dangers that the politics of fear will take over from the politics of hope.”
Singh said hope was essential in a country where millions were still afflicted by poverty, ignorance and disease.
“Every day there is an attack on the core values of our nation... there is a war against our inclusive culture and attempts are made every day to create an atmosphere of suspicion and fear,” Sonia said in her farewell speech.
Sonia and Singh described Rahul as the new hope for the party as it faces tough challenges heading into the next general elections scheduled for 2019.
“I was terrified when I took over the Congress 20 years ago, my hands were shaking. I didn’t know how I would manage, I had no political experience,” Sonia said in her speech, adding that her son was stronger.
“In these testing times, he has stood up to dangerous men in power. He faced such personal attacks that it has made him stronger and unafraid,” she said of her son.
Gandhi will confront his first test as Congress leader this week when election results emerge from Gujarat, Modi’s home state, which the BJP has ruled for over two decades.
He has led the Congress campaign for the election, winning the backing of some influential caste groups who say they have been left behind by an economic boom in the prosperous western state.
However, surveys on Thursday showed the BJP would sweep Gujarat as well as elections in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
Results of the elections in both states will be out tomorrow.
Gandhi entered public life 13 years ago when he stood and won in his family seat of Amethi in north India.
The fifth-generation scion looked out of place and came across as a reluctant politician until this year when he appeared more confident during his public appearances.
Rahul Gandhi kisses the forehead of his mother Sonia after taking charge as the president of the Congress party during a ceremony at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi yesterday.
