Hyderabad: Reminiscing about his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ which encompassed walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that all politicians today have forgotten to “deeply listen” to the public. Speaking at the Bharat Summit here, he also said that even the opposition (in India) does not know the same.
“And if there is one thing we have failed at with all the social media, it is that politicians have failed to deeply listen,” said Rahul Gandhi while addressing delegates from different countries on the second day of the Bharat Summit held in Hyderabad on Saturday, April 26. The Congress LoP was addressing attendees that included MPs and ex-ministers from other nations like New Zealand, Malaysia and Europe, who were in town to attend the progressive-left Bharat Summit global meet.
“Some years ago we in the Congress party felt completely trapped. This new politics, aggressive politics, a politics where the opposition is not talked to, but the idea is to crush the opposition… and we found that all our avenues were compromised. The media, the general atmosphere did not allow us to operate the way we liked. So we decided to walk from Kanyakumari, one of the southern most parts of the country, all the way to Kashmir,” stated Rahul Gandhi.
Talking about his experience during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ at the Bharat Summit, he said that he learnt to listen to the public during an interaction with a woman who was being physically abused by her husband. “I realised there was a different way of communicating with people and that was to become completely silent..This woman came running towards me and the moment she held my hand, I felt fear in her hand. I did not say anything and I asked her what happened. And she said to me, ‘I have come here to walk, but I have to go back. I have to go back quickly. She said because my husband is thrashing me and I have come here to this Yatra. I said ‘what do you want me to do?’. She looked at me and said I don’t want you to do anything and know that this is happening to me,” recalled Rahul Gandhi.
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The Congress leader at the Bharat Summit also said that democratic politics has fundamentally changed now, and that the rules that applied a decade ago do not apply anymore. “Sometimes when I speak to younger members of our party.. what was effective 10 years ago, the tools that were effective 10 years ago, simply do not work anymore. They cannot face the concentration of capital, modern social media, and so in a sense the old politician is dead and a new type of politician has to be constructed. That really is the challenge in front of us,” he added.
Not mentioning but indirectly talking about right-wing politics, Rahul Gandhi said that “their lens is fear, anger, hatred”. To counter that, he said it should be met with love, affection and listening to the will of the people.
Addressing the Bharat Summit delegation, Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy also said that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru focussed on irrigation and education, while Nehru’s daughter and later PM Indira Gandhi strove to eradicate poverty in India. The CM along with legislators and delegates and Rahul Gandhi released the Hyderabad Resolution of the Bharat Summit, detailing a general outline of goals for progressive parties to work towards, like social equality, gender equality and justice.
