JAIPUR: Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi today came down heavily on the tendency of a section of partymen resorting to ostentatious display of wealth and flaunting lavish lifestyles.
“Seeing so many of our younger colleagues here, I am tempted to say something on a subject that has always bothered me. And this relates to our lifestyles.”
In her opening address at the party’s Chintan Shivir here, Gandhi said “Celebrating wedding, festivals and happy events is one thing but what of lavish ostentatious displays of wealth, pomp and status? Does this not beg the question where is this wealth coming from? I hope that you will take this seriously and come up with suggestions and norms that we may all accept and adhere to.”
She also said “our citizens are fed up with the levels of corruption that they see in public life at high levels but equally with the corruption they have to deal with in their daily lives.
She wanted the partymen to recognize the new changing India, an India increasingly peopled by a younger, more aspirational, more impatient, more demanding and better educated generations.
“This is a natural and welcoming outcome of rapid economic and social change that has been brought about by the success of our programs to educate to empower and indeed to unshackle and disadvantaged. Our youth is getting more assertive, it wants its voice to be heard,” she said.
According to Gandhi, across the “length and breadth of our country, people are expecting much more” from their political parties.
“Aided by the tools of the modern world- television, social media, mobile phones and the Internet- today’s India is better informed and better equipped to communicate,” she said.
“The law we devised, such as the Right to Information, and the technology we facilitated give the people the ability to seek more from their elected representatives, better delivery, strong responsiveness, greater accountability and ultimately and demonstrable integrity.
“We cannot allow our growing educated and middle-classes to be disillusioned and alienated from the political process,” she added. -PTI
