It is an honour for me to speak to you. Last year, at a similar gathering of colleagues and friends, I spoke about the optimism and energy that has built this great nation. The same energy that is unleashing an unstoppable democratic upsurge in our country today.
For the last ten years, we have had the privilege of Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singhji’s leadership. This unbroken decade of stability has created vast new economic opportunities for our youth and has brought about massive social and political change.
It is clear that we the Congress have made this democratic upsurge possible. We have served the country by enhancing and deepening the foundations of our democracy.
Let’s look at the big steps that we took to increase your power, the people’s power, in India. The single biggest attack on the closed system of governance is the RTI. Information is power. We restored this power to you where it rightfully belongs. The RTI has forever altered the politics of this country. We enacted this revolutionary law to hand you power, knowing fully well that it would place our own government under severe scrutiny.
We have also created the right to identity so that your money reaches you directly. It is the largest anti corruption platform that anyone has ever built. It will enable people to get their benefits and entitlements without paying a bribe.
Secondly, we constructed and reinforced the third pillar of government
– Panchayati Raj. This has allowed millions of you to have access to our political system and has exponentially increased democracy in our country. What is NREGA and the Right to Food, if it is not handing you power? Decisions that were once in the hand of a few government officials are today firmly in the hands of all our people.
The third step is the advancement of technology, the bedrock of which was set up by the Congress. [Read More]
Hamara Congress 