Expressing its disappointment with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi”s address at the annual general meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said a confused youth leader had presented his confused ideology, and added that the ruling party”s phobia over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was reflected in his speech.
“A confused youth leader presented his confused ideology, which nobody could understand. Because a leader who is ruling the country, it is their government, they should have answered what they have done; but instead of answering about the achievements he was all the while only raising questions which the common people are raising. It was in a way tacit admission that no major progress has taken place in last nine years,” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
“And more than that, it is also tacit admission that even empowering of the people, which was the theme of his speech, has not happened during the UPA rule. And it was very clear that there was a Modi phobia reflected in his speech,” he added.
Another BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, echoing similar sentiments, said that the main opposition party hoped that Gandhi would speak on corruption, inflation, but he has disappointed the nation.
“Rahul avoided many important issues facing the country,” Hussain said.
In his address earlier in the day, Gandhi emphasized that the nation is bursting with dreams and fearless ideas, and said that the spirit of the people of India is energetic and optimistic.
“Optimism for me is just like India, it is bursting with dreams and fearless ideas, brave ideas. Millions and millions of youngsters struggling every day with optimism,” he said, while addressing the annual general meeting of industry body CII here.
Gandhi, who spelt out his vision for economic growth of the country, said India is home to the largest pool of human capital the world has ever known and probably will ever know.
“And it is this movement of people, this tremendous movement of people and ideas that is going to define this country in the 21st century. It is this energy that is producing your best managers. It”s driving the stock market and it”s the energy providing labour for all your factories. It drives the consumption upon which your businesses are built,” he added.
Asserting that democracy and technology have triggered a non-reversible chain reaction in India, Gandhi said: “This reaction is now unstoppable. Nobody can stop that. We have to channel this reaction.”
The 42-year-old Congress leader said India is now sitting on an unstoppable tide of human aspiration.
“The tide is so great that it is going to move forward regardless of what we do. But for this massive movement of people and ideas to be truly transformational, we need to nurture it. We need to make it harmonious. We need to make it happen smoothly,” he said, while emphasizing that there is a need to use the energy generated by the movement of people and ideas.
Gandhi told the business leaders that it is the responsibility of all to provide India with a physical infrastructure to enable the unprecedented movement of people and ideas.
“The first thing that we need to do is to accelerate this movement. It is our duty to provide India with a physical infrastructure to enable the unprecedented movement of people and ideas. This infrastructure needs to connect India. It needs to connect Indian villages. It needs to connect Indian cities and it needs to connect India to the rest of the world,” said Gandhi.
“We have to provide the roads on which our dreams are paved. And these roads can”t have potholes, they can”t break down in six months. They have to be big roads because they are going to carry strong people, they are going to carry strong forces,” he added.
Gandhi also lauded India Inc. for introducing India to the world.
“When I went to university in 1991, nobody knew India…that is not the case now thanks to you people,” he said.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, inaugurated the CII meeting earlier on Wednesday.
The theme for this year”s deliberation is “India Tomorrow: Imperatives of Growth, Security and Governance”. (ANI)