Thaindian News

Shimla, Oct 13 (IANS) Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday visited the Himachal Pradesh University campus here and shared his thoughts and vision with the students.
“You have to be open minded and flexible in approach. If you want to grow, learn as much as you can,” he said at an interactive session with around 1,000 students, organised by the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the party’s student wing.

Explaining the importance of a leader in any political party, Gandhi compared the qualities of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former prime minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP leader L.K. Advani.

“The first two are open with ideas and have flexible approach, while Advani-ji is not flexible to new ideas,” he said.

In his more than an hour long interaction, Gandhi talked about democracy in the political organisations and bringing more and more youth in the frontal organisations - the Youth Congress and the NSUI - of the Congress.

“My effort is to open the doors of frontal organisations for the youth, groom them, train them, and ultimately absorb them in the party,” he said.

However, he added they needed to have a “proper mix of the experienced people and the youth”.

“Elders and the experienced have their own role in every organisation. Look at Manmohan Singh. He is 70 years. But he is as energetic and positive in functioning as any young person.”

Gandhi also spoke at length on country’s economy, education system and the plight of the poor and downtrodden.

After the interactive session, he mingled with the students.

Similarly, another interactive session was organised in Dharamsala, 30 km from the district headquarters town of Kangra.