'Rajiv Gandhi’s progressive & secular policies relevant today'

'Rajiv Gandhi’s progressive & secular policies relevant today'

'Rajiv Gandhi’s progressive & secular policies relevant today'

Congress Lok Sabha Member from Assam Pradyut Bordoloi.

 

Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 20


Congress Lok Sabha Member from Assam Pradyut Bordoloi said that India would have been better if Rajiv Gandhi lived today. Bordoloi, who represents Nagaon Parliamentary Constituency and is also All India Congress Committee (AICC)`Secretary incharge of Nagaland, said this while speaking at a Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) programme on August 20 in Dimapur celebrating the 75th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. 


Basing his speech on ‘Digital transformation of India & the New Millennium Plan of Rajiv Gandhi,’ he described Gandhi as a progressive visionary, who sowed the seeds for the progress India has made in telecommunication and Information Technology. Crediting Gandhi for starting the C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) in 1984, Bordoloi said that it revolutionalised telecommunication in the country and simultaneously promoted computerisation.  


“He was criticised and mocked at the time. Rajiv Gandhi foresaw it. He said, ‘This is the future’.”


According to Bordoloi, before 1978 there was nil software export from India.  “But by 1990, 128 million dollars worth of software technology was exported from India,” he said, while claiming that Indians, the world over today, form the backbone of the IT industry. 


On the other hand, he held that the present BJP-led NDA dispensation “with their brute majority” is destabilizing the country and “trying to change the basic parameters of the Constitution.” He further accused the BJP of trying to impose a “unitary concept” of the RSS with a rigid and centralized grip on power. 


While stating that abrogating Article 370 was unconstitutional, he said that if at all it came to such a stage, the opinion of the people of Jammu & Kashmir must have been taken into consideration. 


In such a juncture, he said that Rajiv Gandhi’s progressive and secular policies and viewpoint on decentralizing political power becomes relevant today. 


He said that it was Gandhi, who introduced the Panchayati Raj system, while adding that it was an instance of Gandhi’s confidence in federalism. Introducing 33 percent women reservation in local bodies, reducing the voting age from 21 to 18 years, National Police on Education and initiating children-oriented schemes were the result of Gandhi’s vision, he added. 
“Today, people try to undermine his contribution but it was him who actually gave a roadmap to India,” Bordoloi said. 


Responding to a query from a party worker on the perceived leadership crisis in the AICC, he termed Sonia Gandhi’s return as the party chief as a “stop gap arrangement.” 


“The Congress will have its plenary session where we will elect/select the President. Till such time, Sonia will continue as President.” The plenary session, he said, will likely take place after polls conclude in states bound for Assembly elections.   
NPCC President K. Therie and Working President Bobby Panicker also spoke at the programme. State Congress veteran and a former Nagaland Chief Minister KL Chishi was also present.