{"id":13774,"date":"2017-12-16T08:01:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T08:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/punjabnews24.com\/?p=13774"},"modified":"2017-12-16T08:13:50","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T08:13:50","slug":"rahul-gandhi-takes-over-as-congress-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/rahul-gandhi-takes-over-as-congress-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Rahul Gandhi takes over as Congress President"},"content":{"rendered":"

*New Congress chief Rahul Gandhi asks cadres to stand up to BJP<\/strong>
\nDelhi : <\/strong> Congress President slams Modi, says PM taking India back to medieval times
\nRahul Gandhi takes over today: Sonia Gandhi talks of retirement, Congress wants her to stay as \u2018mother\u2019
\nAfter taking charge as the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday mounted a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. \u201cCongress took India to the 21st century, but the PM, today, is taking us back to the medieval times,\u201d he said while addressing those who had gathered at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi to witness Rahul\u2019s anointment.
\n\"\"
\nRahul Gandhi took charge as the party chief in the presence of the 132-year-old party\u2019s top brass and his family. Congress Central Election Authority (CEA) handed him the certificate of his elevation in presence of his mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh among others.
\n\"\"
\n\u201cIt is with the deepest humility, that I accept this position knowing that I will always be walking in the shadow of giants,\u201d the new Congress President said. \u201cWe consider the BJP as our brothers and sisters, but we do not agree with them. They (BJP) crush voices but we allow them to speak, they defame we respect and defend,\u201d he said adding that if there is anyone who can stop the BJP from what it is doing, it is the Congress which has love and affection for its people. \u201cWoh todte hain, hum jodte hain. Woh aag lagate hain, hum bujhaate hain. Yeh fark hai unmein aur ham mein (They break the country but we unite it. They burn the country, we douse the flames. This is the difference between them and us),\u201d Rahul Gandhi said.<\/p>\n

The transition in the top leadership bears an uncanny resemblance to the time when Sonia took over and the party clocked its worst performance since Independence in the 1999 elections, winning 114 seats. The Congress bounced back in 2004 and retained power in 2009 \u2014 it also won a string of Assembly elections from 2004 to 2014. Rahul, 47, had entered electoral politics in 2004. He was appointed as the party general secretary in 2007 and was elevated as its vice-president in January 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to make Congress, grand old and young party. We will fight the politics of anger. You have an example in front of you. Once a fire breaks out it is difficult to douse it, that is what we are telling the people of BJP, that if you set the nation on fire it will be difficult to control,\u201d Rahul said while criticising BJP for spreading \u201cthe fire of violence across the country.\u201d
\n\"\"
\nOutgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi too criticised the BJP government for the current state of the country. \u201cSince 2014 we have been playing the role of opposition. The challenge that we face today is the biggest one. Our constitutional values are being attacked, our party has also lost many elections but our party will never bow down,\u201d she said.
\n\"\"
\nIn a rare show of emotion, Sonia said her son had become a stronger man owing to his background. \u201cRahul is my son so I do not think for me to praise him is right. But I would say that since childhood he had to bear the brunt of the violence. After joining politics he had to face blatant personal attacks, that has made him a stronger person,\u201d the 71-year-old leader said. After being the Congress chief for 19 years, Sonia became the longest-serving president of the Grand Old Party. \u201cIndira ji passed away, after which Rajiv ji also passed away. My support was taken away from me and it took me a long while to come to terms with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh said he hopes Congress will reach new heights under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. \u201cWe depend upon you to transform the fear of politics and hate to hope,\u201d he added. Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the party was making a new resolve for the country. \u201cToday we are taking a pledge for a new movement in India. Free from fear, for freedom of expression, for eliminating discriminations, for promoting brotherhood and saving democracy.\u201d
\nThough Sonia has said she plans to retire, senior leaders of Congress clarified she has retired as president of the Congress and not from public life. Former union minister Veerappa Moily said Sonia shouldn\u2019t forget that she is also \u201cmother to the entire cadre of the party\u201d and should continue to play a \u201cmother\u2019s role\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*New Congress chief Rahul Gandhi asks cadres to stand up to BJP Delhi : Congress President slams Modi, says PM taking India back to medieval times Rahul Gandhi takes over today: Sonia Gandhi talks of retirement, Congress wants her to stay as \u2018mother\u2019 After taking charge as the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday mounted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[312,315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13774"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13787,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774\/revisions\/13787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}