The Hindu : Front Page : Rahul will have to prove himself: Sonia

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Saturday, Oct 13, 2007
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Rahul will have to prove himself: Sonia

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said her son Rahul Gandhi might have got a head start but would have to work hard to prove himself and succeed.

“The name of the family or experience of the family gives you a head start, it helps in the beginning. But in our system, which is a democratic one, you have to prove yourself,” she said at the HT Leadership Summit here.

Dismissing speculation that his appointment as party general secretary was the first step towards his becoming her successor, Ms. Gandhi said, “Unless you prove yourself, you cannot go ahead and I think this is not only in politics, this is so in every sphere of activity, whether it is business or any other profession.”

Asked whether his appointment was the first step to a rapid rise, she said: “I don’t see this ... He himself would not want to see himself as that.”

To another question what would happen to him next, she said, “He has to work hard. He is planning to work hard. He is already beginning ...”

When the questioner Vir Sanghvi referred by mistake to her daughter-in-law and asked whether Ms. Gandhi took decisions after consulting her and her son and daughter, the Congress president said: “I don’t have a daughter-in-law.”

This led to peals of laughter in the audience which included Mr. Gandhi himself as also her daughter Priyanka and Robert Vadra.

In the context of questions on the nuclear deal, when it was asked whether she would agree if newspapers came out with the headline ‘Congress backs out, no early election and no confrontation with the Left’, Ms. Gandhi shot back in a lighter vein: “Unless you write something like that, nobody will read your papers.” — PTI

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