Describing women as a “central and driving force” of the country, Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha on Friday that his grandmother, the late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, taught him a powerful lesson when he was a child.
In his speech on the Women’s Quota Amendment Bill, he said: “When I was a young child, I was very afraid of the dark. We had this huge dog, which would attack me and my sister (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) all the time. We were afraid to go out in the dark.”
“You held my hand…”
“One day my grandmother found out. And I say that because it was one of the most powerful lessons ever taught to me by a woman, by my grandmother,” he said, recalling, “My parents had gone out to dinner. She took me by the hand, and took me into the dark garden. She let me go, and said, ‘Stay here, don’t move.’ Then she left. I watched her go, and she was wearing the yellow sari I remember. (I thought I was done with it.)Meri hawa nikal gayi, main toh gaya!)”
He said he did not have the courage to tell her that he did not want to stay where he was
“She went away for a minute or two. For me, it took two to three hours. I was imagining the dog coming to bite me; I was imagining ghosts and snakes… She came back and asked me: What are you afraid of?” I said, “Daddy, I’m afraid of that dog, I’m afraid there’s someone in the park; I’m afraid of that dog.” Bats. Snakes. “I’m afraid of things I can’t see,” he added.
“She said, ‘No, Rahul, you’re not afraid of the dark or dogs or bats. You’re just afraid of your mind, your imagination, what you’re thinking,'” he recalls.
He also added: “Then she said, ‘You must not be afraid of the dark; The truth is often in the dark. If you do not have the courage to face fears and enter into the darkness, you will not be able to understand the truth.”
Lesson for life
He said it was a political lesson, though years later; But “it was basically a religious lesson: Satyam Shivam Sundaram”.
“Satyam Shivam Sundaram” is a Sanskrit phrase that literally translates to “truth, goodness and beauty.” In Hindu philosophy, it represents the concept that absolute truth is divine, beautiful in nature, and is often used to describe the nature of Lord Shiva.
Rahul and his party opposed linking the women’s quota, originally passed with their support in 2023, with delimitation, i.e. increasing and redrawing Lok Sabha seats.
The BJP-led NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have a two-thirds majority to pass the constitutional amendment.
