Srinagar, Oct 5: It just turned out to be too easy for the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to strike a chord with Kashmir youth on Friday as he addressed them from the podium of the Valley’s highest seat of learning.
“The reason I am here is because we need to develop long-term relation of trust,” he said, addressing a jam-packed student audience at Kashmir University’s famed Convocation Complex.
Flanked by some of the India’s top business tycoons, Rahul said; “The idea is not to set-up concepts or projects that fail but set-up the ideas and concepts which succeed.” “This is a journey of all of us. We have to work together [in this journey],” he told the students during an interaction ‘Building Bridges.’ “This would be a team-journey to see and explore what works and what doesn’t; What we require to do and what to discard.”
Rahul didn’t stop there. “I am here to understand your pain; understand what you have been through because I consider by journey with you as life-long,” he told the young students, who posed questions to him later.
Rahul was accompanied, for the first time to Kashmir, by business tycoons Ratan Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Deepak Parekh and Rajiv Bajaj and Ashok Reddy.
“The issues in J&K and the country can’t be resolved in this Hall. A continuous conversation is required for the same. And that is what I am here for,” he told the students, roughly 1500 in number. “I want to help you as much as I can. But for lasting relation, you need to build and maintain that trust.”
Rahul also referred to the “trust deficit” between Delhi and Kashmir. “As the trust-deficit ends, you will start to go faster in life because you all are very dynamic.”
He asked the youth to “take preemptive measures to improve stability in Kashmir and also bring about improvement in the situation.”
“What we have been hearing or told is that Kashmir is the beautiful place. But as I looked out from the widow of a guest house today, I would say not only the place is beautiful but people too are equally beautiful.”
Rahul said he had promised the students of university during a similar interaction last year to facilitate an interaction with the titans of the industry.
“I had come here last year and had promised the students that I would try to build a long-term relationship with them, to develop some trust,” he added.
Rahul said; “They (students) had mentioned to me that they would like to speak to some big businessmen and discuss job placements. So I have brought some of the titans of the industry to Kashmir to have a word with them”.
PTI adds: The titans of the Indian industry today came to Kashmir promising to tap the “enormous” potential in the region to help usher in change with Ratan Tata saying the doors have opened for bringing investments.
Tata, the Chairman of the Tata Group who was part of a top business delegation brought by Rahul Gandhi to the Valley, also hailed the AICC general secretary’s efforts to do something for the people of Kashmir.
“What Mr Gandhi has done is not open a window but open a door,” Tata told reporters here after addressing a packed interactive session with students of Kashmir University along with Rahul.
In his interaction with reporters, Tata said it was for the industry leaders to do something for people of Kashmir so that they become a part of the growth and development of the country.
“It is for us as people in the industry to look beyond our normal places of endeavor to do something in Kashmir, to do something with Kashmir and to do something for the people of Kashmir that will bring prosperity and change,” he added.
“The potential is enormous and I think what has happened today is that the doors have been opened,” he said.
The industrialist also said he was feeling very emotional in saying that, “it has been a real step forward to be able to have a conversation with a great wealth of human capital that exists in Kashmir”.
At a breakfast meeting with Omar, Tata also expressed his desire to expand his group’s activities in the state.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 5 Oct 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 5 Oct 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 6 Oct 2012 00:00:00 IST