An emotional Sonia Gandhi signed off on her 19-year tenure as Congress president on Saturday, stating that the country was facing “unprecedented challenges” but stressing that the “Congress will not bend in fear.”
In the midst of her speech, Ms. Gandhi had to pause as firecrackers drowned her voice. A somewhat annoyed Ms. Gandhi was heard saying that she couldn’t shout above the noise. While Congress leaders rushed out to tell workers to hold the celebrations, Rahul Gandhi walked up to tell her that it would subside in a few minutes.
Ms. Gandhi spoke at length of her son’s determination and patience in the face of adversities and bitter personal attacks.
“You have chosen Rahul as your leader. He is my son and it wouldn’t be suitable for me to praise him. But this much I will say — while from his very childhood he has borne the experience of violence, the savage personal attacks he has confronted since entering politics have served to make him a brave and stout-hearted man. I am proud of his endurance and firmness and I am confident he will lead the party with a pure heart, patience and devotion,” she said.
Asserting that “an atmosphere of fear and suspicion has taken over and there are attacks on the freedom of speech and expression,” Ms Gandhi said the Congress must look within to forge ahead and not aim for power and wealth.
“Our party has lost several State elections. But an exemplary energy fires our Congress workers. We are not ones to bend in fear because our struggle is a fight for the very soul of this nation. We will not retreat from this fight,” she said.
She also narrated how her initial connection to the world of politics was a personal one and the tragic circumstances the like the assassination of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, that forced her to take charge of the party.
“Indira ji accepted me as a daughter and from her I learned about the culture of this country, about those principles on which this country was founded. In 1984, she was assassinated, I felt I as if I had lost my own mother. That catastrophe forever changed the course of my life. I had a different view of politics at that time and I wanted to keep my husband and children from as far away from it as possible,” Ms Gandhi recalled.
She said despite her pleas, Rajiv Gandhi took up the post of the prime minister as a duty. “Then, just seven years after the death of Indira ji , my husband too was assassinated. I lost my anchor and my support. It was many years later that I could emerge from my shell. Only when I came to feel that Congress was facing a crisis and that anti-Congress forces were gaining strength, did feel compelled to respond to the call of the party workers. I felt turning away from this would negate the sacrifice of my mother-in-law and my husband's life. So I entered politics as a duty to my family, party and the country.”
She said the UPA years under Dr Manmohan Singh guaranteed rights-based laws to the economically weaker sections such right to food, education, health and information among others.
Speaking before Ms Gandhi, former Dr Manmohan Singh said the Congress salutes her leadership and expressed confidence that Rahul Gandhi would ensure politics of hope prevails fear.
