Poverty is a state of mind: Rahul Gandhi made economics irrelevant

India

oi-Shubham

Allahabad, Aug 6: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday applauded self-help groups (SHG) for helping the marginalised sections to overcome their economic hardships. He said the SHGs give the necessary self-confidence to the poor to overcome poverty.

[Read: PM, poverty, marriage: What's Rahul Gandhi's state of mind?]

The Congress leader uttered these words while speaking in a discourse named 'Culture, Deepening Democracy and Most Marginalised Communities', organised by Badri Narayan, a noted social scientist.

Gandhi said poverty is just a state of mind and does not mean scarcity of food, money or material things, adding that one needs to have self-confidence to overcome poverty. He cited the example of a poor woman in Amethi, who 'redeemed her self-esteem' by getting involved with a SHG named after Rahul's father, late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress vice-president said his only political purpose is to hear the voice of the poor and the marginalised.

What was Rahul trying to convey is difficult to understand. He is a leader of a party which has influenced the course of this country for most of the post-independence era and with the nation about to complete 66 years of independence, he is saying that poverty is just a state of mind? What can be more hilarious than this explanation?

If poverty is a state of mind Mr Rahul Gandhi, then the socialistic idealism that your great-grandfather had followed in those formative years was also a state of mind and it led to nowhere. If poverty is indeed a state of mind, then why not start psychological counselling for the poor in the country.

in Allahabad Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi during inuaguration of a new branch of Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital at Naini in Allahabad on Monday. In Allahabad Vice President of the Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi interacts with people during a program at Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad on Monday. Rahul Gandhi with students Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with students during inauguration of a new branch of Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital at Naini in Allahabad on Monday. Rahul Gandhi speaks Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi speaks at a function at Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad on Monday. Rahul Gandhi interacts with people Vice President of the Indian National Congress Rahul Gandhi interacts with people during a program at Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad on Monday. BJP activists showing black flags to Rahul Gandhi BJP activists showing black flags to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi who arrived to inuagurate a new branch of Kamala Nehru Memorial Hospital at Naini in Allahabad on Monday.

The Planning Commission has already explained how much money one can have at least to get rid of the 'poor' tag and now you are also liberating the poor from their 'psychological baggage'. Great job, Mr Rahul! In this way, we are not far from becoming one of the fast-growing rich countries in the world.

The Congress leader said he understands the weakness of the Indian system. If this is the understanding which encourages him to say that poverty is just a state of mind and can be withered with growing self-confidence, then we should doubt the efforts of all those economists who have been working hard on the subject. Rahul Gandhi, in one shot, made economics irrelevant. Can he then just explain why the Congress leadership's obsession with the socialistic pattern in four decades after independence made the nation's economic suffer? Who was lacking the confidence then, the aam janata or the khas netas?

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