New Delhi : A candid conversation with the students of Bangalore’s Mount Carmel College, which earned him negative press as — contrary to his expectations, the participants gave a thumbs-up to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Swacch Bharat Abhiyan — has not deterred Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi from reconnecting with them.
In a thank-you letter to all the students, Gandhi said that the conversation that took place between them is a part of the larger conversations that should take place in the country.” I believe that the future of our country will depend on our ability to confront the challenges we face today with clarity and honesty,” he wrote.
After the negative media coverage and the adverse attention in the social media, some students, one of them, notably Elixir Nahar had written a longish account of that Bangalore meeting on her Facebook post and literally slammed the mainstream media for the negative coverage. She wrote:” I was appalled, more so because not once have I questioned the authenticity of the top-tier news app on my phone, where I get my news on-the-go. Clearly their reputation precedes them if they were publishing something that they could not even vouch for at that very stage,” and proceeded to narrate the entire conversation.
Apparently, Rahul has been encouraged by these responses and has called the students the “torch bearers of the change.” The solutions to these problems will come not just from our leaders and lawmakers, but also from the common man on the street, from the farmers on the field, and the young citizens of the country,” he has written.
