Key Takeaways
- The Congress Party is not just a political party but a whole set of political ideas.
- The party’s unique design element allows it to reinvent itself and survive despite financial constraints.
- Rahul Gandhi explains that the Congress Party’s philosophy, value system, and party organization do not overlap 100%, but when they come close, they become very powerful.
Washington: Former Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the grand old party is not just a political party but a “whole set of political ideas” and, compared to other political parties, it has the ability to reinvent itself.
Interacting with the students of Georgetown University here, Gandhi said, “There is a design element in the Congress Party that has been in place since Mahatma Gandhi’s time, and it has certain qualities as a political organization that are very powerful. I was watching the elections, and there was a point when we sat down with the treasurer, who said, ‘Look, your bank accounts are frozen. How are you supposed to fight an election if your bank accounts are frozen?’ We really didn’t have an answer then.”
Adding that, despite the financial constraint, Congress fought the election and ‘essentially destroyed the idea of Modi’ .
“You can see this because, when you watch the Prime Minister in Parliament now, he’s psychologically trapped. He cannot come to terms with it; he cannot understand how this has happened,” the Raebareli MP said.
The former Congress president said, “For me, and for the Congress Party, watching this is quite amazing. It’s not just a political party but a whole set of political ideas. Looking back, there’s a reason it survives — it’s in the basic architecture of the party. Sometimes the party strays from that architecture, so I differentiate between the Congress idea, its philosophy, its value system, and the party organization. They do not 100 percent overlap, but when they come close, they become very powerful.”
Rahul Gandhi is on a three-day visit to the US. During his visit, he interacted with the students, academics, and experts from various fields.
