Chandy was a great leader who carried everybody along, says Rahul Gandhi

Fondly remembering Oommen Chandy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the late former Kerala chief minister was a “great leader” who had carried everybody along through his decades-long political career.

Making a surprise entry at a meeting held by the Congress here to commemorate Chandys life, Gandhi, who had been undergoing Ayurvedic wellness treatment at Kottakal Arya Vaidyasala near here for the past few days, said Kerala needs leaders like Chandy.

“I worked for 1520 years with Mr Chandy. I never heard him say a bad thing about anybody. Not once did he come to me and complain about somebody. I never saw him trying to divide the people of Kerala,” Gandhi said, paying tributes to the Congress stalwart who died in a Bengaluru hospital on July 18.

The former Congress president said Chandy was a leader who emerged from the people of Kerala like a wave emerges from the ocean.

“I experienced working with Chandy for quite a few years. He was senior to me, and I viewed him as somebody who gave me understanding, gave me direction, and had much more experience than me. And I viewed him as somebody from whom I can try to understand the people of Kerala,” Gandhi said.

Noting that leaders emerge from people, history, culture, and the relationships of people, the former Wayanad MP said there are many traps, distractions and dangers on their journey.

“When you emerge from people, when you emerge from history, you get power, and you can misuse that power. People praise you, you can become arrogant, you can stop listening to the people. You can get confused and think that you are the people or that you are bigger than the people. So you can get trapped by corruption. There are many many dangers in this journey,” the Congress leader said.

Recalling his Bharat Jodo Yatra days in Kerala months ago, Gandhi said Chandy, who was seriously ill at the time, walked with him, refusing his advice against it.

“When Oommen Chandy was walking with me, I was holding his hand, trying to give him support, and throughout the walk, Chandy-ji was trying to refuse my support. He wanted to walk alone in the yatra with the people of Kerala.””He did not want anybodys help to walk with the people of Kerala. And while I was walking with him, I thought to myself, What a great leader this man is!” Gandhi said.

Advising Congressmen to walk in Chandys path, the party leader said, “Kerala needs people like Mr Chandy who are not blinded by hatred, by anger, who are not confused by different communities, different castes, different languages — and (Kerala needs) people who carry everybody.”Chandy, who was a two-time chief minister of Kerala, breathed his last in a private hospital in Bengaluru on July 18. His end came while undergoing treatment for cancer, party sources said. He was 79.

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