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Punjab Visit Rahul Gandhi, general secretary of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC), started his maiden Punjab visit by paying obeisance at the Golden Temple on September 22. His visit to the Temple was unscheduled and a very few people knew about it. Even SGPC did not know about his Temple visit. He stayed there for about half and hour and then went to his next destination. It is the tradition that the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee honors the visiting dignitaries with a Siropa (robe of honor). But for quite some time SGPC has not been honoring the opposition leaders. It must be borne in mind that his grand mother and former Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indra Gandhi had ordered the Operation Blue Star.

Bagh He refused to give answers to the various queries made by the media persons by saying that “I am here as a humble devotee and not to pose for photographs” as it is “a religious place I would prefer not to talk”. Later on he visited Jallianwalla Bagh and the Durgiana temple, the other two most visited places by the Indians in the Amritsar city. He was honored with a siropa by the head priest of the Durgiana temple.

Campaign Rahul Gandhi is on a three day visit to the states of Punjab and Haryana which is being considered the next phase of his “Discover India” program. He also visited a village fare and attended a games function in both the states. Under his leadership Congress has launched a campaign to increase its youth membership by encouraging the youths to take interest in the politics. After the Killing of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, Congress was lacking a charismatic leader. Gandhi family kept itself away from politics for some years. Thought after some years they started to took part in the national politics and led the Congress party to power again but their political base has been shrinking continually. A very few young people have joined the party in recent years. It had been completely wiped out of power even from those states that it had ruled for decades.

Planning Congress used to be one of the largest political party of India. But presently it is ruling the nation by forming an alliance with many regional parties. Congress wants to decrease its dependence on the regional parties for forming a government. For it Congress needs a wide spread network of its workers that can increase its support base and bring it back to power on its own. With this purpose Rahul Gandhi has launched a campaign and the current visit is another part of it.