New Delhi, April 3: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today described India, particularly its young generation, as the driving "energy force" for the 21st century.
Addressing the captains of industry at the Confederation of Indian Industry here today, Rahul Gandhi spoke of the aspirations of the "one billion young Indians" who are going to drive India into the 21st century.
"India is the home for the largest pool of workforce on earth. Corporate India is the ambassador of modern India. The large part of our education today is based on defunct ideas", said Rahul Gandhi.
Here are the other salient points from Rahul Gandhi's speech:
--India is bursting with ideas. Our younger generation is raring to move forward.
--Indians must have ideas to move forward in the 21st century
--Do our universities have ideas for education which IITs need?
--Our students are brilliant, have no dearth of ideas, but they do not know what the industry and markets want
--Universities today must become a network for interaction with industry, which is lacking
--Corporates must take the lead in creation of jobs, Govt has to improve the playing field
--We should worry about what will threaten the movement of ideas of younger generation (1) excluding the poor, the middle class, Dalits and tribals (2) improvement of road infrastructure (3) improvement of education network
--It's not enough to raise the tide (for the young). we have to give them the boats, the basic infrastructure to them.
--Give everybody the basic minimum on job front, on education front, on information front, that is what we are trying to do
--Inclusion of poor people will help in allowing people to move forward
--Why are students forced in universities to learn obsolete things?
--Our economic reason must be more than money, it should be about compassion
--If we do not embrace the poor, we will all suffer
--India will only move forward with inclusive growth
--There are two ways the movement of people will go : it will go harmoniously or it can be disruptive. That's why UPA is trying for inclusive growth
--Anger, hatred and prejudice do not contribute to growth. When you play the politics of hatred and prejudice, people suffer, the industry suffer. Once done it'd take a very long time to improve.
--Look at our successes, our Green Revolution, the White Revolution, the IT revolution, the Telecom Revolution. It's all the result of incremental thinking.
--Had there been no Telecom revolution, Sam Pitroda would had been going on distributing telephones, he would have been in Kalahandi distributing telephones. He would have lost his flock of fine grey hair, and would have become bald. I myself face the problem of becoming bald.
--I envision an Indian industry which does not compete on Raisina Hill, but compete in the streets and localities of our towns and villages
--I've come here to forge a long-term partnership with you, to take the country forward.
--Adiji (Godrej) said, I spend a lot of time with poor people. India cannot go forward without the help of poor people. It's not good enough to say poor are important, the middle class is important, or the business is important. This country can only go forward if we have a coalition of all.
--We have to change the system. MPs, MLAs should look into only higher policies, the lower level execution should be left to village pradhans.
--The 73rd and 74th amendments to Constitution (Panchayati Raj) has given more power to village pradhans. Sometimes ministers do the job of pradhans, which they should not be doing.
--Except the Left parties and the Dravidian parties, there is total disconnect in all other parties, who have no grassroot contacts with the village pradhans. For these poltiical parties, everything is dependent on MPs and MLAs.
--If you expect Manmohan Singhji will solve all problems, you will go on expecting it forever.
--No one individual, not even Rahul Gandhi can solve all problems. One billion people will solve India's problems.
--India is a beehive, China is a dragon. China has a centralised system, Indians revel in complexities. We are used to complexities.
--We can't give simple answers to the West. West wants simple answers from India. Our entire system is complex.
--Don't think that this beehive of a complex system will give us stress. It will give us results in the long run.
--India has a decentralised system, a soft system, unheard and unseen.
--You have tags for leaders - somebody looks for middle class, somebody for Dalits, I have one aim. It's an accident of fate I happened to come from a chain of people. I have been put in a situation. I was told, Boss, here you are.
--We have to move this country from the old idea. The idea that we love - the guy who will come charging on a white horse. I saw rani of Jhansi on a horse. She was not the only hero. She was one among the many heroes. What I want to do is to help the Indian people, to give their voice. I don't care about Montek, Sunil, or the poor guy sitting in Amethi, I want the one billion people to get their voices.
----That's why I don't like this politics of Biharis coming to Mumbai. or, huge communities, 200 million people Muslims, you say, don't exist. You say, we want to keep out of the system. It is just not sustainable. It is complete waste of our energy. We have to take everybody together. We have to take them all.
--The idea of India told by Gandhiji, is written in Geeta, Buddha spoke about it. The idea is compassion. What is compassion? It is listening to others.
--Somebody tells me you will become PM. Somebody says you maybe PM. somebody says you are not going to be PM. It's all irrelevant. It's all smoke. The only relevant thing is how you give the people of India their voice, their vote.
--You (corporates) have the cutting edge of this century. The others tell us of India's Hindu rate of growth. Now the Hindu rate of growth is the European rate of growth. That's not a good thing. That's a bad thing. We have to work with everybody. I don't think we stop working the way you do. I want let's go and listen to your worst enemy.
