Meeting with Rahul Gandhi
A Tryst with the New Age Icon of Free India
Agenda: Discussion with meritorious students
Venue: 12 Tughlak Lane, New Delhi
India has always proved to be a country of immense potential, be it in politics, academics, business
or social welfare.
The interaction with Rahul Gandhiji was under “Students 500” program, where Shri Rahul Gandhi
meets and interacts with the selective 500 students from the top colleges across the country
to explore the areas where the young can contribute in nation building and include them in the
mainstream.
Under this program students from IILMGSM accompanied by Dr. Anurupa B Singh, Area Head
Marketing and Dr. Richa Misra met.
The selected students were as follows :
- Girish Balakrishnan
- Swapna Viswanadham
- Chandni Khandelwal
- Navneet singh Sagoo
- Vaibhav Garg
- Deepali Srivastava
- Rekha Mittal
- Suruchi Goyal
- Varun Tandon
- Harish Anand
The General Secretary of AICC (All India Congress Committee) Shri.Rahul Gandhi and Secretary
Ms.Meenakshi Natarajan interacted with the students. He emphasized that it is very important to
have knowledge about various domains to accommodate with the challenges in the life. From his
diverse pool he shared many of his real life experiences which were highly motivating and insightful.
He also took keen interest to know about the students individual visions wherein he advised not to
refrain or limit oneselves to a particular domain or expertise and inculcate flexibility and agility in
life in order to sustain in the present dynamic environment he also took up the management theory
of "Art of Asking Big Questions" which he pointed as the key management skill that students need
to acquire and education institutions need to develop to make them "Effective Leaders". He cited
the case of Ganhiji were he aksed the Big Question to the people in South Africa as to why he was
being thrown out of the train. The result of this Big Question is the freedome that we are enjoying.
Learn not to accept reply but to question the reason for any act that is being impelted upon you as
an individual.
The other issue that was raised was about unemployment which is currently at 9.3% and is the major
problem in India. He also presented concern regarding the rural area which is his key interest and
pointed out the success achieved by NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantedd Act) ” which is
serving 2500 million people across the rural India. When asked abot the role of youth in this noble
act he said youth can become entrepreneur and create mutually beneficial symbiotic society.
According to Mr.Rahul Gandhi Indian economy is diverse based and lays more emphasis on service
sector. He emphasised that more money is required to shape up this type of economy. To prepare
a professional for service sector more investment is required in terms of not only domain expertise
but also holostics development that includes effective communication ,persuasive skills and
continues learning process. In case of manufacturing this investment is not that big. The present
government does not have sufficient fund for the same.
When questioned about the prevailing corruption in the society he replied that the corruption was
present in every era but now “Right to Information” has made the system more transparent and
the government has become accountable for their actions . He unlike others accepted the flaws in
society and discussed ways to eradicate them.
He expressed his concern regarding the closed political constituency wherein only a handful of
people take decisions to run the country and there is necessity to bring about change in the same.
He was well aware of high barrier in current system and we realized that he is the only person
fighting alone to incorporate more youth in decision making. He wanted to open huge gate for the
young generation in currently closed political system. He appreciated the the student's idea that the
talent hunt should be conducted to recruit more youths into political system and promised that soon
he will come up with such public forum.
The discussion was brought rest to our myriad streams of thoughts assuring us that our country is in
safe and our future is in secure hand.