After the speech, Rahul Gandhi does the real talking

Says "it was only an accident of fate" that he belongs to the Congress' first family

A plainly dressed, clean shaved Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi this morning walked into the annual general meeting of the CII, delivered a scripted speech and then, in an unusually candid extended question and answer session outlined his vision for the country at a time when speculation is rife about his prime ministerial candidature.

On the same stage where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday had made a strong case for industry to snap out its current mood of pessimism, Gandhi kept his focus keenly on inclusive growth, imploring the need to create physical and knowledge infrastructure to support the massive flow of people and ideas that is underway in the country.

India's economic vision cannot exclude the poor, Gandhi argued, and must include all sections, including the middle-class as well as industry, to push for inclusive growth. "Inclusive growth is a win-win for everybody," he said, while pausing intermittently through his scripted address. The UPA government, he added, has a vision "to give everyone a basic minimum" in jobs, education and information, within a "rights-based strategy", while calling for a new compact between the state and industry.

"India is thirsting for a visionary partnership", he said.

"Congress is the only political institution that can create this partnership. I have come here because I want to forge a long-term partnership to take this country forward."

But that was only the speech. After agreeing to take questions, a confident Gandhi left the lectern, held a microphone and strode the stage giving answers. In reality, however, it was more of him sketching out his perspective on the country's political system, although not without encompassing his role within government and the Congress party.

"We haven't built a system that integrates voices," he said, "The grassroots are not connected to the political system."

Estimating that a group not larger than 300 individuals who decided most political candidates at the state and national level, Gandhi reasoned that systemic changes were urgently required to drive transformation from the ground-up. "The political system is clogged, and it is not responding to you."

"It is not important what Rahul Gandhi thinks. It is important what India's billion people think," Gandhi added. "Give me all the power you want, but I cannot (alone) solve all the problems of a billion people."

In a conversation peppered with Hindi, with hands occasionally on the hips, Gandhi then said that "It was an accident of fate" that he comes from the Congress' first family. "I have been put in this situation". However, his intention, regardless of whether he eventually became the Prime Minister or not, was to help the country move away "from the old idea of the guy on the horse" who would come charging through and everything will be fixed.

"I want to help the Indian people have a voice," he said.

A strong contender for prime minister in 2014,  Gandhi said: "I got press guys asking when you are getting married. Somebody else saying, boss, when are you going to be the Prime Minister. Somebody saying, no your are not going to be PM, somebody say may be you will be PM. There is good possibility. "It is like the American polling charts. 47.3 per cent of possibility that he might be Prime Minister... The only relevant question in this country is how can we give our people voice?"

Millions of Indians are brimming with energy. We are now sitting on an unprecedented tide of transformation. This tremendous movement of people and ideas are going to define this country in the 21st century, he added.

The scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty acknowledging his "DNA", the "accident of fate" (that he was born into the Gandhi family"), said: "I have one aim in life, which is to make heard everybody's voice. We have to work with everybody." 

(Kavita Chowdhury also contributed to this story)