Thread by @ganesan312

Excerpts: Rahul’s brilliant interaction - with Professor Ashutosh Varshney, faculty, and students...
Part 4 - Topic: Understanding Gandhiji, Swarajya, Shunyata, Giving up power.

This is an interesting exploration, explanation by Rahul. Many may not be aware of. So sharing it.
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Q - Leela:
Mr Gandhi, the concept of Swaraj self-rule was of course a rallying cry for the Congress party in the early decades of the 20th century it was a slogan for independence from Imperial rule and as well as the source says, M K Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj.
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It expressed a highly original, ethical, spiritual vision of Indian democracy in which simply the powerful give up the right to rule over, dominate, oppress, injure the powerless, therefore men or women, the Hindu majority over various religious minorities, the rich over poor.
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Of course, the list is very long indeed. So my question is what does Swaraj mean if anything to Congress leadership in the 20th century and to you personally.

Rahul:
See, the idea of India if you look at how India was put together and modern India and the role of Gandhiji...
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he was essentially in the conversation of the negotiation of power between these systems.

He took a very interesting position, was in a sense, it's an Indian philosophical tradition. I don't actually exist, I am dead, meaning I have no game in this conversation right.
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So he in a sense became shunyata and then that conversation actually started.

Without that thing, without Gandhi’s attack on himself, India could not have structured, the negotiation would not have begun.

So the idea of India itself required an introspection into the self.
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Frankly, if you want to keep India together you got to do that. If you don't do it, if there is no shunyata in the negotiation then it is not going to work. That is what Congress brings to the table.

Today, a group of 20 people, have taken a different view on Congress party.
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Do you think they could exist in BJP, do you think they could exist in BSP, do you think they could exist in TMC?

No, they cannot exist in any other party except the Congress and the Congress says look we don’t agree with you but the negotiation cannot stop. It has to go on.
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That is the nature of Congress. I see it. Of course, it has lost. The depth of Gandhi is not there. The understanding of Gandhi Nehru is not there.

But that comes with the force that you are fighting. Gandhi would not have been Gandhi without the force that he was fighting.
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The above contents bring out the basic principles, philosophies on which the Congress organisation was built; Rahul finds the spirit within but acknowledges the loss of Gandhian ideals. It should go as a message to all Congresspersons.

Your comments, opinion are welcome.
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