Senior Congress leader and former president Rahul Gandhi has said that the biggest learning experience in his life was the death of his father. Said that this incident made him face the reality of life, which he would never know. Rahul Gandhi was speaking in an interview during a seminar at Cambridge University.
Emotional as he remembered his father, Rahul Gandhi said the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was the “greatest learning experience” of his life, adding that he cannot deny that life’s The saddest incident taught him something he could never learn.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide squad of the Sri Lankan extremist organization LTTE during an election meeting in Tamil Nadu on 21 May 1991.
On Monday, Dr. Shruti Kapila, an Indian-origin educationist and associate professor of history at the prestigious Cambridge University’s Corpus Christi College, posed a “Gandhian question” to her and asked how it was her experience of being in the midst of violence and herself on a personal level. Congress leaders became emotional on this. He remained silent for a while and then said – “The greatest learning experience of my life was the death of my father. There is no greater experience than this.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, 51, said that “Now, I can look at it and say that the person or force that killed my father has caused me great pain. That’s right, as a son I lost my father and it is very painful.’
The Congress leader said, “But then I cannot get away from the fact that the same incident also taught me things which I would have never learned. So, as long as you’re willing to learn, it doesn’t matter how bad or bad people are.”
Linking it to day-to-day politics, Mr. Gandhi said: “If I look at PM Modi that he attacks me, and says oh my God, he is very smart, he is attacking me. So that’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at the same thing is to say it’s great, I’m learning something, you attack me more.”
Asked if the loss can be somehow productive, he highlighted the dangers of politics, where bigwigs are involved. He said, “This will always happen to you in life, especially if you are in places where big people are gathered, then you will always get hurt. If you do what I do, it will hurt. This apprehension is not certain, for it is as if one swims in the sea with the big waves, and the big waves push him inwards. When you are in such a situation, you learn how you should react to it.”
During this interview, he also answered questions from some students of Cambridge University. He was asked how he can contribute in bringing about a change in Indian politics. To this Rahul Gandhi said that they can join party leaders as interns and then they can be sent to different parts of India to watch political action, but also to make them face tough situations during this time. Gotta be ready.
He called upon the youth to participate in it. “It’s a tough job and if you do it right, it’s a painful act, it’s not a fun business, it’s a tough job and you have to go through bad times at times,” he said.