Rahul Gandhi on marriage proposals and far more

Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, in a departure from his usually reticent demeanour in Parliament, interacted with 40 or more MPs in a freewheeling discussion over two and a half hours, holding forth on a range of issues — need for younger leadership, response to his tours in poll-bound UP and the food Bill being as landmark a legislation as NREGA.

The exchange, which included light-hearted banter, saw him confessing to getting thousands of emails daily, with some being marriage proposals. He has increasingly started taking centrestage since he took charge of the Congress’ innings at the UP Assembly polls.

“Benibabu told me,” he said, referring to minister Beni Prasad Verma, “that I don’t know how difficult it is to fight with the Congress.” He said his experiences in the field had proved otherwise. “Even if they were to lose (in UP), it would be a valuable lesson, for the lessons from defeat are better than those from victory.”

He urged the MPs to go to their constituencies in the villages and interact with people. Only then will they gain “public credibility”. Falling back on his experiences in overhauling the Youth Congress, he emphasised they should focus on “system creation and not on individuals”.