Gandhi & the Congress Party
On January 29th, a day before he died, Gandhi had a radical proposal that the Congress, its role fulfilled with independence, should dissolve itself as a political party and "flower into" an association for empowering the people of India. It would tackle illiteracy, ill-health, unemployment, untouchability and communal intolerance in every village in India. In proposing this a day before he was killed, Gandhi’s aim was two-fold. While Congressmen would be prevented from encashing for themselves their new-found power, the people of India would be strengthened in their equation with the state. Aware that the state of independent India retained a colonial and feudal mindset, Gandhi wanted yesterday’s freedom fighters to empower the citizen; and he was confident that parties old and new, from the left to the right, would fill the vacuum created by the Congress’s exit as a political body. Congressmen unable to live without politics could join another party, he said.
Source : An article by Rajmohan Gandhi http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040823&fname=FCol+Rajmohan&sid=1&pn=2 Hmmm how many of those in Congress, talk about this when they discuss Gandhi?
And a pointless questions : If the Congress party had been disbanded, would India be different today? And what if Indhira had married a man with a different surname, would Congress still refer so much to MK Gandhi? What is in a name, be it a surname or a party name? And have “Congress”, & “Gandhi” become misused brand names.(referring to the Gandhis in Nehru's family not MK Gandhi's family)