'We have made a pledge; those who kicked Rahul Gandhi out of the house he had lived for 19 years, will be kicked out from the corridors of power.'
"Today, the entire country, including Manipur and Haryana, including the majority and minority, tells the prime minister of this country, follow Raj Dharma," T Siddhique, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee working president and the Congress MLA from Kalpetta which falls within Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad constituency, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
The concluding segment of a two-part interview:
- Part 1 of the Interview: 'Modi and Shah are scared of Rahul Gandhi'
How do you look at the bulldozer politics started by Yogi in UP and now replicated in Haryana?
Actually, bulldozers should be used against those who spearhead hate politics and not against the poor people who live in slums.
They belong to all religions, and they are all poor.
Whether they belong to the majority community or minority community, they are all from the marginalised sections of society.
And they are using bulldozers against such people and not letting them live there too.
Right to shelter is the right of every citizen of this country.
It is not just that the government has not been able to provide them proper shelter, they are bulldozing the poor from their temporary shelters.
What is happening today is, the government is not only using machineries like the ED, NIA, CBI, etc, but bulldozers also as symbols of suppression.
Like I asked earlier, as a Muslim political leader, how worried are you about this situation?
It is tragic that every citizen in this country is feeling a kind of uncertainty today.
Throughout India, there is feeling of insecurity also.
Not just the minorities of India, Dalits, media, activists, those from the majority community who do not accept the BJP, non-BJP political parties are also feeling insecure today.
What the BJP wants is make everyone feel insecure.
After a certain point, people will realise that they are using divisive politics to achieve power.
In fact, the general public has started understanding the divisive politics game played by them.
But the general talk is that Narendra Modi and the BJP will come back to power in 2024...
Never. In the 2024 election, the INDIA movement will win with a good majority.
It is because they are worried about their future that they are indulging in divisive politics with more vigour.
They are using divisive politics to camouflage their failures like unemployment, price rise, atrocities against women and children, problems on the country's borders, etc.
Through divisive hate politics, they want to make people fight against each other. They want the main concern of the people should be their enemies which in turn will make them forget the government's failures.
This kind of a dangerous politics is being played out in this country by this government.
Do you remember what the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said to Narendra Modi, the then chief Minister of Gujarat? That Modi should follow Raj Dharma.
Today, the entire country, including Manipur and Haryana, including the majority and minority, tells the prime minister of this country, follow Raj Dharma.
Wait and see, INDIA will change the prime minister who cannot follow Raj Dharma.
Now that Rahul Gandhi's disqualification has been revoked, will he the prime ministerial candidate of INDIA?
People of this country believe that Rahul Gandhi is the perfect candidate to be the prime minister of this country.
We at the Congress have that desire and we are expressing it, that's all. But this will only be discussed in the INDIA movement much later.
Rahul Gandhi was described as a reluctant leader. Those who resigned from the Congress said, he was unapproachable as a leader.
Has he changed in the last few years?
My opinion is totally different from what the leaders who left the Congress, had said.
Whenever Rahul Gandhi comes to Wayanad, I travel with him.
From the conversations we had, I have noticed his high potential as a leader and vast knowledge as an individual.
I have listened to him discuss on many subjects ranging from space technology to military strategies to various social schemes to labour laws with ease.
Rahul Gandhi is a man of innocence and great knowledge. He is a very good listener.
He is a man who talks less and listens more. Only such a person can understand people's problems and be a good leader.
When Rahul Gandhi decided to fight the 2019 election from Wayanad, you had said you would give up the seat for him...
We, the people of Wayanad and also the people of Kerala look at Rahul Gandhi's presence as a blessing, as a gift. We value his presence a lot.
If you were to ask me what the most painful moment in my political career was, I would say it was when Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Parliament.
Our desire is to keep him as the MP of Wayanad always.
If you remember, the Supreme Court mentioned how his disqualification would impact the electorate of Wayanad.
When the government did not to listen to us, when the courts in Gujarat did not think about us, the Supreme Court understood our pain.
The Supreme Court verdict was the moment that strengthened our belief in the judiciary.
What do you expect in Parliament now?
We expect to witness the fire unleashed by Rahul Gandhi in Parliament.
That will start with the no-confidence motion debate itself.
You can listen to several scathing questions relating to the grave problems faced by the country from him, for which Modi will have no answers.
We have made a pledge; those who kicked him out of the house he had lived for 19 years, will be kicked out from the corridors of power.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
