Translated Speech in English at Talkatora Stadium

Esteemed members of the Congress Working Committee, Members of the All India Congress Committee, Sisters and Brothers,

A few days ago, I submitted my resignation to the Congress Working Committee. I did so that day with a heavy and burdened heart. It was in 1998 that I entered the political arena, having consistently refused over the previous seven years to do so. You are well aware of the circumstances which compelled me to take this step. The Congress was in grave difficulty, it was imperative to meet the challenge of the communal forces. The great achievements of the great Congress leaders of the past were in jeopardy, there was the danger of the sacrifices of Indiraji and Rajivji going in vain. I could not bear to see this happen. A year-and-a-half later, this is where I am. The very people who had come to me with folded hands to plead that I emerge from my seclusion to save the Congress began questioning my patriotism. They sought to sow seeds of suspicion about me in the minds of my fellow-countrymen and women. And they did this in concert with those very forces whom I had entered the political arena to combat.

When this happened, I was deeply pained. It seemed to me I had been abandoned on my own in this great struggle. Those whom I considered my own appeared to have been overcome by their greed for power and position. They neither understood me nor what moves, motivates and inspires me. Instead of facing up to the enormous challenges confronting the nation, they succumbed to mean intrigue and petty conspiracies against each other. I despaired, and decided on the course of resignation.

If today I stand before you, there is only one reason for this. Over the last nine days, I have thought a great deal, reflected a great deal. From every corner of the country, our workers have come to me. I was able to see who my true companions were. You rekindled hope once again in my aching heart, you gave me the reassurance without which my assuming the post of President would have been without purpose. You gave me your dedication, your affection, your support. I could not let you down. The testing times we have been through these last few days - me, you, our party - all this is a call for renewal, a call to build anew.

Our objective is not to win elections alone. In life, there is both success and failure. Victory ultimately goes to those who stand up for the Truth, who are ready to sacrifice their all for their principles. I want that Congress which is prepared to do this. Let those who wish to go with me do so knowing this full well, and let those with the slightest reservations about this go their own way. We have neither fear nor concern. We are not lusting for office. We are not among those who run after power. Our task is the service of the nation, the completion of the work and the realization of the dreams of the great souls who have gone before us. No one and nothing can tear us from this goal.

What is the meaning of their questioning my patriotism? Mother India took me to her bosom thirty-one years ago, the very day I came here as Indiraji’s daughter-in-law. Not only has this land borne witness to my life, every second of my life has mingled with this land. It was here that I married, here that I became a mother, here before your eyes that I was widowed. The greatest daughter of this country, Indiraji, breathed her last in my arms. Each drop of blood in my being cries out that this is my land. This is where I belong, this is my country.

It is not I who will answer those who question my nationality, it is the people of this country who will give them a befitting reply. As regards the post of Prime Minister, as is customary when the occasion arises, this will be decided by Congress Parliamentary Party. Remember, friends, in the days to come, it will be the unending endeavour of our opponents to raise false issues.

They want to distract attention from their thirteen months of disaster, to drown out discussion of their thirteen months of policy failures. We will not let this happen. It is their friends who have targetted the minorities. Are they now going to, turn by turn, test the loyalty to the nation of each and every one of them?

In the recent past, the politics of the nation has, in a sense, undergone a transformation. This makes it all the more imperative that, in the changed circumstances, the Congress recognize and adhere to its true identity. Ours is today the only Party, which represents the whole country, which represents all Indians. This is our greatest strength.

The Congress Party has always made the struggles of the people its own. We have always sought to maintain democracy, ensure social equality, and promote justice for all. The history of our Party is replete with this endeavour. Today too, our struggle is to keep the flame of these principles burning. It is to us that the people of this country look their eyes brimming with hope. It is to us that they turn in the hope of a better life, of a better world, in the hope that we will keep the promise of their yearning for a brighter future. They look to us because it is we and we alone who have invariably given this country sound and stable governance.

I want you today to take this pledge, spread far and wide through the length and breadth of this country and tell our fellow countrymen and women of all we stand for, all we are committed to accomplish. It is with that spirit of unity you have displayed here these last few days that we will have to go forward.

I stand before you today as a proud Congressperson, doubly resolved to lead the fight for our beloved country. No longer shall we tolerate the negative forces which seek to target the dignity of a woman through calumny and falsehood, which attempt to rule by sowing suspicion, by dividing brother from brother, by indulging in the partisan politics of hate.

I have thought deeply about the problems that confront our great country and the issues that stir the minds of the vast majority of our people. I recall the immense contribution of the Congress Party under the leadership of Gandhiji to the winning of freedom, of the men and women from all walks of life who, without regard to the cost, made sacrifices for our country.

I remember the clarity of purpose of members of my own family who single-mindedly devoted themselves to the service of the nation. Jawaharlal Nehru, the builder of modern India, gave us a vision of our immense capabilities and charted the course for us to follow. Indira Gandhi never wavered in her purpose to break the stranglehold of poverty and to make us a self-sufficient and proud people. My husband Rajiv Gandhi, who forsook his personal inclination to work in the public domain, focussed the energies of our people with a sense of mission towards achieving greatness in the 21st century.

Such has been the tradition to which I, and all of us in the Congress family, belong.

Our commitment from the beginning has been to help the poorest of the poor, to relieve the pain of the tormented in communal strife, to lift the weakest and less-abled, to give voice to the underprivileged, the oppressed, the untended. This is still our primary concern. We believe that the Indian woman, so long unable by circumstance to contribute fully in our national life, should in the new century find her rightful place as equal partner in every sphere of human endeavour. I particularly look to my young compatriots, our new generation of Indians whose expectations and ambitions encompass the world. I assure them of our full support, as they become the cutting edge of India in the new Millenium.

As we go forward from here today, I am conscious that the nation’s and the world’s eyes are upon us. We are the world’s largest democratic party, which seeks to play a decisive part in the future fortunes of the world’s largest democracy. Our task is great and this greatness shall invest our every thought and effort, abjuring the trivial and the irrelevant. We shall seek a mandate from our people for this great cause, for an India that is confident and capable, for a government that is responsible and responsive to the needs of the people.

Ours is not a battle merely for votes or for public office, as they like to portray it. It is certainly not a referendum on personalities, to which they wish to confine it. It is a battle for the India of our dreams, for the future of our children and our children’s children. I invite every Congressperson here, and through you, every Congress worker and supporter in India and abroad to join us in this historic battle. This is a battle for the minds of all right thinking Indians, by which I mean all Indians, to rise above regionalism and casteism, to rise above gender and economic disparities, to rise above the divisive squabbles of petty politics, to rise above the destructive mind-set of apathy and despair. To all my fellow-Indians, I call out to join us in building a new, strong, united and resurgent India.

Jai Hind.