Recounting an incident after the 1997 election, Rahul Gandhi said he used to think that the government house that his family used to stay at belonged to them until one day his mother told him they were leaving the house. “There was a strange situation in the house. I went to mummy and asked what happened. She told me that we are leaving the house. I used to think it was my house. Then my mom told me that it was not our house, but the government’s.” The Congress leader said he got unsettled after knowing that and asked Sonia Gandhi where they would go next. “Nahi maloom,” my mother said. Read | ‘This is Savarkar’s ideology, you call it nationalism?’: Rahul Gandhi on China
“I am 52 now and still I don’t have a house. The family house we have in Allahabad is not ours. I stay at 12, Tuglak Lane. But that is not home to me,” Rahul Gandhi said. “So when I started out on Bharat Jodo Yatra, I asked myself what my responsibility was — to all the people that joined the yatra. Then an idea came to my mind. I told my office people that people who come to meet me during the yatra should feel at home. The yatra will be our home and the doors of this home will be open to all — rich, poor, animals – everyone,” Rahul Gandhi said at the 85th plenary session of the Congress at Raipur.
“It was a small idea but I understood the depth of it later. The day the yatra became home, the yatra changed. People did not talk to me about politics,” Rahul Gandhi said. “And then when our little home reached Kashmir, I felt I reached my home,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s speech, BJP’s Sambit Patra said Rahul Gandhi took a long time to understand his responsibility. “After 52 years, Rahul Gandhi started thinking about responsibilities. He relinquished the party presidency and then started thinking about his responsibilities. I will tell you, Rahul Gandhi ji, your responsibility is power without responsibility – like all other Gandhi family members,” Sambit Patra said.
“Our two PMs understood at the beginning of their political career what you realised after 52 years. You used to think all government houses belonged to you. In English, this is called the sense of entitlement,” Sambit Patra said.