Mohandas Kumar Prakharti MP, Candidate for the Leadership of the Indian National Congress, gave a speech to the Congress Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Committee,
It is a sad thing when, because of an in-party conflict, a party loses its leader. It is with the wisdom that Mahatma Gandhi teached us that I come before you as a candidate: the wisdom that if we're not united, we can't achieve anything, whereas if we're united we can achieve everything. The Indian National Congress has always stood for Unity in Diversity, Equality and Liberty. I will seek to unite the INC behind me if elected, and follow a policy of consensus and moderatism that everyone can agree on.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I have dispensed to you already the focal parts of the policy I intend to follow: this country needs a moderate party on the left, devoted to liberty as much as equality. A party that Gandhi can be proud of, to make a nation that Gandhi can be proud of. The time has come for the citizens of this nation to recognize they're all Indians, despite religion or ethnicity. If one views oneself as an Indian, he is an Indian. Sonia Gandhi was an Indian.
I will, under my leadership, make this party a unifying, moderate voice for the people of India. On the terrain of the economy, I will not deregulate as much as the Janatas, but I will certainly allow economic growth by some deregulation. I firmly believe that there is always a middle way, and this party should follow the middle way. My other top priorities shall lay with Education, Culture, Infrastructure, Industry, Peace and Agriculture, my plans for which I shall set out to you.
Excellent education is a prequisite for a modern nation to function, and I view India as a modern nation. We should make sure all people go to a quality school by promoting quality and quantity with innovative subsidy schemes. Our Culture must however remain preserved in order to remain Indian, a multi-facetted nationality nevertheless: even if there is a unifying factor, it cannot be unifying without something to unite. Under my leadership, the INC will strive to promote all cultures in India with equal funding and come to mutual understanding.
Infrastructure, Industry and Agriculture are closely linked together. While in the cities our country is densely populated, the countryside and the links between city and countryside are far from dense. The INC will, under my leadership, come with infrastructure plans to make an efficient transportation system possible, with focus on connecting rural areas (as there are no connections between rural areas and other rural areas and one must travel down the tree to get up again). Agriculture will, while it is a source of income to our population, be seen as utterly important by me. We shall make partnership plans possible where the farmers, in partnership with the Government, will try to professionalize their agricultural efforts. The gap between urban and rural areas must be closed.
Finally, peace. Peace between us and the outside world, but also peace between Indians. Kashmir is a challenging issue to tackle on a bilateral plan. Therefore, we must talk to Pakistan about United Nations mediation. We shall not take arms in active warfare unless we are attacked or threatened ourselves, for there must be peace in our time. Peace between Indians may sound strange as a goal for a united country, but by that I mean that we shall make peace in the Lok Sabha, promoting bi-partisan politics so that we can make India together.
For that is what we must do, Ladies and Gentlemen. We must make India together. Let together start with a united INC.
A united INC under my leadership.