Rahul Gandhi in conversation with Dr. Shruti Kapila of Cambridge University.
Cambridge:
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was the “greatest learning experience” of his life, claiming he can’t escape the fact that the event also taught him things he would never have otherwise. learned.
In conversation with Indian academic Dr. Shruti Kapila at the prestigious University of Cambridge on Monday, was asked about the anniversary of his father’s death in an LTTE suicide bombing at an election rally in Tamil Nadu in May 1991.
dr. Kapila, an associate professor in the Faculty of History at Corpus Christi College, presented the opposition MP with a “Gandhian question” about violence and how to deal with it on a personal level.
“The greatest learning experience of my life was the death of my father. There is no greater experience than that,” said Mr Gandhi, after several minutes of pause during which the 51-year-old leader appeared visibly moved.
“Now I can look at it and say that the person or the force that killed my father caused me tremendous pain, that’s right, as a son I lost my father and that’s very painful.
“But I can’t help but learn things through the same event that I would never have learned otherwise. So, as long as you’re willing to learn, it doesn’t matter how dirty or bad people are,” said the congress leader.
Gandhi went on to relate this to everyday politics, adding: “When I turn around and (Prime Minister) Mr. (Narendra) Modi attacks me, and I say oh my god he is so mean, he attacks me one way to look at it, and the other way to look great, I could learn something from him, give me some more.”
When asked whether loss can be productive, Mr Gandhi reflected on the dangers of politics where great powers are at play.
“In life you will always, especially if you are in places where great energies move, you will always hurt. If you do what I do, you will get hurt. It is not a possibility, it is a certainty, because it is like you swim in an ocean with big waves that you go under. When you go under, you learn how to react to it,” he said.
During the session at the University of Cambridge, Mr Gandhi also answered a series of questions from university students who wanted to know how they could contribute to making a difference in Indian politics.
The Congress leader said they could join party leaders as an intern and then be sent to different parts of India to witness political action, but urged them to be ready to work it out.
“It’s a hard thing and if you do it right, it’s a painful thing, it’s not a fun thing, it’s a hard job and you get beat up,” he said, calling on the young people to get involved. .
The interactive session marked the conclusion of Gandhi’s tour of the UK, which began last week with his session at the ‘Ideas for India’ conference in London alongside other opposition leaders, meetings with Indian Overseas Congress (UK) workers and British opposition MPs. and shadow ministers.
Rajiv Gandhi, who was India’s sixth Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, aged 46, during a poll in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, by a female suicide bomber identified as Dhanu. †
Fourteen others, including Dhanu himself, were also killed in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist attack.
The murder was likely the country’s first case of suicide bombings that had claimed the life of a high-profile leader.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
