India Uncut

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Sunday, October 23, 2005

No free lunch, says Rahul Gandhi

The Telegraph reports:
... Rahul [Gandhi] visited two villages in Ranga Reddy district to see for himself how the micro-finance scheme of an NGO — Swayam Krushi Samstha — was working. He spent over two hours in Bandasomaram, about 45 km from here, where he surprised all by opting to sit on the floor with the villagers and sharing their drinking water.

“He also had tea and biscuits with us,” said Padma, an activist.

The first-hand experience of how small loans can change the lives of the poor and the disadvantaged had strengthened his opposition to subsidies and freebies, Rahul said. “If they are able-bodied and healthy, there should be no free lunch at all. It is bad to give anything as dole.”
Why am I blogging this? Well, I'd wondered in an earlier post what kind of thinker he was, and this gives me reason to be optimistic. He is almost certainly a future leader of the country, if only because of the family he's from. And reportage like this interests me far more than some of the details earlier in the article, when we are told that later in the day Gandhi had "a meal of mutton biryani with a side dish of chicken."

Well, actually, I don't mind that also but I do mind that only.
amit varma, 11:19 PM| write to me | permalink | homepage

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