Raipur: BJP ridiculed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for saying that he is 52 years old and does not even have a house yet. Addressing delegates on the third day of the 85th Plenary Session of the Congress Party, he said that the experience of not owning a home changed the Bharat Jodo Yatra and made it connect with the people. But BJP leader Sambit Patra mocked that Rahul is thinking about responsibilities only after 52 years.
∙ This is what Rahul said
“My mother said. This is not our home. It belongs to the government. We have to give up. I asked them where they were going. Their answer was that they don’t know” – he was referring to an incident after the 1999 elections. He said that at that time he thought that the house he lived in belonged to him.
“Now I am 52 years old and don’t even own a house. The family home in Allahabad is not ours. I live in house number 12 Tughlaq Lane. But that house is not mine. When I started the Bharat Jodo Yatra, I asked myself what my responsibilities were to all the participants in the Yatra. I told this to the people in my office. It should feel like a home for the travelers. Travel is our home. Its doors should be open to everyone – the rich, the poor, the animals… and everyone.
It was a small idea. But the depth of it became clear to me later. The day the journey became a home, the journey itself changed. People didn’t talk politics with me. When our little house arrived in Kashmir, I felt that it was my home,” added Rahul.
∙ Ridicule of BJP
“Rahul is thinking about his responsibilities after 52 years. After leaving the post of party president, one thinks about the responsibilities. Rahul, all I can say is that your responsibility, like all other Gandhi family members, is power without accountability.
What you understand after 52 years was clear to both our Prime Ministers early in their political careers. You used to think that all the government houses were yours,” said Sambit Patra.
English Summary: Rahul Gandhi says ‘I am 52 but don’t have a house yet’; BJP mocks