Students’ expression cannot be stopped, says Shri Rahul Gandhi, urges youth to drive change

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Shri Rahul Gandhi on August 20, 2026, said that the nation must make every person feel that they belong. Every single person, regardless of religion, caste, age or gender, must feel “I belong here. I am loved here. I am respected here and my search for truth matters,” he said while addressing a congregation ‘Hara Bhara Swaraj’ organised to commemorate late Rajiv Gandhi’s 82nd birth anniversary here today.

Lashing out at the BJP for targeting minorities, Dalits and Adivasis, he noted, “The BJP tells Muslims, Christians and Sikhs that they don’t exist. BJP tells Adivasis that their land will be taken, and if they protest, they will be shot. BJP tells Dalits that their oppression doesn’t matter. This is what has been done to our country.”

“That needs to be reversed,” he asserted, stressing that every single person should feel a sense of belonging, love and respect in the country.

The senior Congress leader maintained that the word ‘Swaraj’ is an Indian concept and is wrongly translated as ‘freedom’ in English. Swaraj, he explained, meant ‘ruling over oneself’, adding that while one could grant freedom to another, one could not bestow Swaraj upon another. Describing an individual’s personal relationship with the world as Swaraj, he said that Mahatma Gandhi wanted every person in the country to walk this path. He added that Gandhi ji considered every living being a unique entity, with his or her own path towards the truth.

But, he added, the RSS has decided that it knows the truth of 1.5 billion people. “And I say no, only 1.5 billion people can know their own truth,” he remarked, adding, “If I start to believe that I know your truth, I am a madman. Because I have not faced what you have faced, and I have not seen what you have seen. So how can I say that I know your truth?”

“How will that expression transform the education system of our country? How will that education system transform the fact that you can do whatever you want? That’s really the question. How can we use this awakening, energy, now to make fundamental changes for young people going forward? This is the fight. There is no possibility of ‘Swaraj’ for the large mass of Indian people if one man owns every single business in this country. It cannot be done.” He said that Mahatma Gandhi’s vision cannot exist without certain fundamental things.

“It cannot exist with an education system that is so expensive, it cannot exist with a testing system that is unfair, it cannot exist with a financial system that is monopolised by two or three people, it cannot exist without a political system that reaches deep inside the country - panchayati raj, MLAs, MPs etc. etc. That is really what you have to do.” Shri Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress wants the type of India where every individual feels special.

“Imagine what the BJP-RSS has done, they have told 16 per cent of the people - Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, that they do not exist and if they open their mouth, they will see what they will do to them. Next they have said to 10 per cent Adivasis that they will take their land whenever they want and if they fight for their land, they will be shot,” he claimed.

Shri Rahul Gandhi also claimed that the BJP-RSS have told Dalits, who comprise 15 per cent of the population, that they have dealt with social oppression in the past and why they are complaining and that there is nothing wrong with the caste system.

“That is what they have done to this country. That is what they have done to our ‘Bharat Mata’... and that needs to be reversed,” he noted.

“Every single person, regardless of religion, caste, age, or gender, must feel: I belong here. I am loved here. I am respected here. And my search for truth matters,” Rahul Ji said.

He stated that Gandhiji’s vision cannot exist without certain fundamental things. “It cannot exist with an education system that is as expensive as it is. It cannot exist with a testing system that is as unfair as it is. It cannot exist with a financial system that is monopolised by two or three people. It cannot exist without a political system that reaches deep into the country. So that is really what you have to do,” he said, exhorting the students present in the audience to work towards such a system amidst thundering applause.

Addressing students and young people directly, Shri Rahul Gandhi said that their aspirations should be respected. He said, “You want to be an engineer, a cook, or a shoemaker. Good for you, be a shoemaker. You want to be an astronaut. Good for you, be that.” He added, “It is the job of the government and the country to open the doors to your imagination and make you feel and believe. The country should help you walk on that path. That is Gandhi Ji’s vision for India, and that is the path of Swaraj.”

Shri Rahul Gandhi said, “Today, the ideological battle in India is this: a group of people who control the system have decided that they know the truth for everyone in this country. That’s why they attack students every single day.”

In contrast, he said, “If a student comes to me, I believe this: they know their truth better than I ever can. My job is to listen, to respect it, to understand it. That is the political fight we are in.”