Youths will respond to Rahul Gandhi's call to defend idea of India, says Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said that youths will respond to new party President Rahul Gandhi's call for an "alternative narrative" based on equal opportunity and jobs for the youth in the country.

In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said Rahul Gandhi's inaugural speech on Saturday laid down the contours of an alternative narrative that the Congress will put forward before the people.

"The Congress will build an alternative narrative based on fairness, equal opportunity, jobs for the youth, and lifting 250 million people out of poverty," he said.

"Our idea of India is different from the BJP's. Rahul Gandhi called upon India's youth to defend our idea of India, and I am sure the young will respond," Chidambaram said.

In his first speech to party workers after his formal takeover as the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi set the tone of the future course and how the party would take on its arch-rival BJP.

He said the Congress is for inclusive politics and it respects all Indians that extends even to the ruling party.

Stating that his party brought India into the 21st century, Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking India back to the medieval times.

Gandhi said that though the politics belongs to the people it is today not being used for them.

"It is not being used to uplift people, but to crush them," Gandhi said.

Gandhi said that many countrymen were "disillusioned by politics of our time as politics is devoid of kindness and truth".

PTI