KOCHI: Maintaining that there was no change in his position on contesting the AICC president’s post, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, however, said his advice to whoever becomes the new head would be that it is not just an organisational post but an ideological post.
Addressing a presser in Kochi on the 15th day of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul also called for the unity of opposition parties saying it was needed to fight the ideology as well as the financial and institutional power of the BJP and RSS. “My advice (to the new AICC chief) is that you are taking on a historic position that defines and has defined a particular view of India. The Congress president is not just an organisational post. It is an ideological post. It is a belief system. So my advice would be whoever becomes the Congress head should remember that he represents a set of ideas, a belief system, a vision of India,” said the Wayanad MP.
While stressing the need for Opposition unity to take on the BJP, he said “I do think that the Opposition has a discussion and comes out with a strategy,” he said. When asked about Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s comment that Congress has crumbled in Goa the day Bharat Jodo Yatra began from Kanyakumari, Rahul said Congress is fighting “a machine that has captured the institutional framework of this country...has unlimited money and unlimited ability to threaten people. “The outcome of that is what you have seen in Goa,” he said. On why he spared the LDF government in Kerala from his criticisms, he said, “Evaluation of the Left government is better done by the Congress leadership in Kerala.”
He added that the Yatra aims to convey to the people of India that the hatred, violence and arrogance now seen in our country is not good. However, he said, he has “ideological disagreements” with the Left. “I have issues with how they deal with politics in Kerala,” he said.