Only poor can understand poverty in true sense: Rahul Gandhi

from the Thaindian

Bangalore, Mar 29 (ANI): On the final day of his five-day tour of Karnataka, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said that he was sensitive towards poverty, saying that to fully understand it one has to be poor.

“I’m sensitive to poverty. I try and understand poverty. But to fully understand poverty, you have to face poverty,” Rahul Gandhi told a press conference here.

It may be recalled that during his entire Orissa and Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi has visited tribals, dalits and people from the poor section of the society to understand the problem of poverty.

Talking about the 600 billion rupees farm loan waiver scheme of the Central Government, he said, “We are a country of a billion people with a large number of poor people. We are growing very fast, but we need to take the poor people along. The loan waiver is a step in that direction.”

Commenting on the critics of the UPA Government’s move, Rahul Gandhi said: “When poor farmers get a loan waiver, why do we say it is not economically viable? We don’t say the same in case of industrialisation. Why this silence. Start viewing poor people with the same frame. Be fair!”

Throughout his Orissa and Karnataka tour Rahul Gandhi has been asking young people to take up leadership and join politics.

When asked as to how he will facilitate young people to enter politics, he said, “there is a systemic problem. No one tracks their members.”

Pointing to the real issue of not being in touch with party members and thus not being able to evaluate their performance, the Congress general secretary said, “The systemic answer to it is that there should be a performance based evaluation and the doors should be open to the young people.”

“It’s important that more and more young people are given responsibilities and are involved in politics. The more young people, the better it is!” he added.

Answering a question on how to improve the delivery system in the country, Rahul Gandhi said, “When you have governments that are fighting among themselves, which Karnataka till recently was facing, it is bound to result in poor service delivery.”

Senior congress leaders, including former Chief Ministers SM Krishna and Veerappa Moily, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Mallikharjuna M kharge and other leaders were present during his tour. (ANI)