Vision of Rahul Gandhi for India
As a politician, I have two roles to play
As a politician, I have two roles to play. As a politician and as a human being I have two roles that I play. The first role is trying to see the big picture. So, I see and understand on as large a horizon as possible. My second role is as a human being. I have to try and be sensitive and have certain values that I hold important to me. So, I would like to speak to you about both these things. But I would like to tell you about the big picture and I'd also like to tell you a bit about what I thought when I was in your place and how I now think differently. So, I will start with the big picture.
Today India is the second biggest country in the world. And we are close to becoming the biggest country in the world; our population in few years is going to overtake that of China. So, we have a responsibility towards the rest of the world; one out of every six human being is in India. And, in the last sixty years, our country got its independence; we have worked very hard to move forward. There is a general tendency among us in India to say kuch nahin ho rha, bahut ahiste chal raha hai to complain. But if we look objectively at what we have achieved as a country, we have achieved quite a lot. When we started sixty years ago, there was povrty every where. Different parts of India were not connected to each other. So, in a sense the energy of the India which lies within its people was spread around. We were not connected to each other; we were not talking to each other. What we have been able to do over the last sixty years with tremendous success is that we have been able to connect Indians to each other. We have been able to connect them through electricity, through roads, through healthcare and in last twenty years, through IT and that is what you do.
I said we had started off as a nation of poor people, where every body was poor. Today and I have been saying it for sometime, that there are two India. There is one India which is connected and prosperous. Most of us come from that India. Delhi, Bangalore, Lucknow, the big cities of India. They are connected, they are rich and they are moving ahead at a fast pace. And then there is a second India, which is poor and is still not connected. And that is sixty or seventy percent of India today. And the job that we have over the next 10,20 or 30 years to take that unconnected India to that connected and prosperous India. What has been happening over the last 30, 40 years is that we have been growing very fast. So, for the first time in our 60 years history, we don't have shortage of money. The connected India is growing fast now, 9% per over the last five years, even the rest of the world is in depression we are growing at 7%. So we are generating enough money to start seriously impacting the unconnected India and to start actively connecting it. And this is the mission that most of you are going to do. And when I say connected India, one of the speakers mentioned about IT, about how important IT is to connect India. That is just not IT; it is connecting India in multiple ways. It is IT, it is roads, and it is healthcare. It is financially connecting India and making sure that every single person in this country is connected to the Indian economy or and to the world economy. That is the job that the youngsters have, and you will see 20 or 30 years from today bulk of India will look like the large cities. So what is role as IT practitioner? Most of youI asked some of you that what are you going to do after this? And lot of you said that we are going to do job. What you don't realize while you doing your job, you are building the bridge that is connecting these two India. And with your work, some of you might be more interested in job and not really bothered about what is going to happen to the country. But what you don't realize is; despite you are doing your job, just by building your software or just by working on computer, without knowing it, you are building that bridge. There might be others among you who might be seriously interested in the nation and some of you might be actively go out and do other things beyond your job. What I want to point out is this by arriving where you have arrived; you have already started the process of linking those two India. So I would like to thank you for that.
Now I mentioned about the time when I was sitting where you are sitting. And I will like to tell you a bit about how I have changed. And how I used to view the world that day and how I view the world today. And I must tell you it is a huge difference. When I sat there I thought I had all the answers to problems. If somebody asked me what you think about a particular topic, I had the answer. I was convinced that the reason it does not happen is because the people did not want it to happen. But that answer was obvious. And I was very fascinate about my own ideas. And today, I feel very fascinate about the ideas, but today I realize that the most important thing that one has to do is actually question one's ideas. And I found in my life that when I was most certain about something, when I was hundred percent convinced that I have to it; very soon I would find that I was wrong. That actually there is another way to do it. And, a better way to do it. So, the most important thing from my perspective is the ability to question an answer. And to say, okay, I am absolutely convinced about it, but may be I am wrong. And in order to question an answer, one has to listen to others. Because, if one does not listen to others, you can not question one's answer. Knowledge is created by the destruction of the knowledge. So, the lot of the ideas that I have, and that I thought very-very important in my mind today have been destroyed. I don't believe in the many more. It will be replaced by a new ideas and I m absolutely certain that some of the ideas are hold today, will be destroyed tomorrow. And that is a good thing. Because, none of us are God. We do not have eternal knowledge and eternal understanding. Life is moving forward and constantly questioning your ideas and your thoughts. And once you start at questioning your ideas and your thoughts, you will find that lots of things that you thought were very-very difficult or complicated become easier. So, the first thing I will tell you students, that when you are certain about something and absolutely sure, question yourself. You will be probably wrong. The second thing I would like to point out is; about the nature of knowledge. And in India this is the big problem. And I have the benefit or in a sense the honour to being able to travel this country and speak to a lot of people. So, I see multiple perspectives. And what I realized very earlier on after starting meeting to poor people, meeting farmers, meeting engineers and doctors, who said every part is point of you, is important. And knowledge actually is not a preserve of one person. Yourselves for example, you have a very good understanding about IT, but if you had to go to farm and ask to a farmer about his work, he will teach you a lot about his work. So, the point is knowledge resides closes where the problem is. So if you are a farmer, most probably you will have the best knowledge about your farm. If you are an IT person, most probably you have the better understanding about what you are doing. And you will find sometimes later that you might have to provide us who might tell you something and you might say actually I am closer to the problem. And I know the problem better then you. You might feel that and he might be considered as a leader. But generally if I seem, if you are closer to the problem, you know more about the problem.
So the first thing I said was; question yourself. And the second thing I said and I am saying when you see a problem, realize that people close to that problem often know more than you know about the problem. And I found it many-many time. I would go sometimes to some poor person's house and I asked them that why do you do these practice and up fronts he looks silly that he is doing that. Then I asked him that why are doing this like this. And certainly he is saying that Bhaiya aise hi kar rha hoon, isliye kar rha hoon..And I realized that I did not understand that. He knows better then me about his own job. So, the first thing is the questioning and second thing is respecting the person who is closest to the problem. And in order to respect the person closer to the problem, you have to give him an equal status yourself. So, we have an idea in India that I am educated and I have been in a University and I got a degree, I am in a sense, more knowledgeable then other. And we politicians are master of it and so we put a lal batti to the car and we think that we are the most superior people. So, respecting where knowledge lies and respecting the person who is closer to the problem. Understanding the knowledge is built by the destruction of knowledge. Like in our ancient scriptures you have the preserver, destroyer and creator. That is the reason for that. You can not have creation without destruction. You can not have destruction without creation. And you could not have either those without preservation. And that is the same with knowledge. You want to get knowledge; you have to destroy current knowledge. And to destroy current knowledge you have to question. You have to learn to question yourself, question people around you. And the more you do that; the more knowledgeable you will become.
*Rahul Gandhi said while addressing students of IIIT Amethi.
Vision of Rahul Gandhi for India
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