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She goes by feeling, I go on thinking: Rahul Gandhi on mom Sonia
Congress president Rahul Gandhi delivered the keynote address at the HT Leadership Summit 2018.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has famously said he is married to the party, today said there is no one special person in his life.
“I have a lot of special people. My mother, my sister, my friends,” Gandhi said at the HT Leadership Summit in the national capital.
“There is no one special person,” the 48-year-old said with a laugh, when pressed for an answer. The audience of business leaders, diplomats and political leaders included his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi took over the party’s reins last year from his mother, who was Congress president for 19 years.
Asked about the differences in their leadership styles, Gandhi said he had learnt a lot from his mother and singled out one attribute, patience.
“She has taught me patience. I used to much more impatient... Sometimes I tell her she is too patient,” Gandhi said.
“We both tend to listen ... I used to listen much less, I listen much more now,” he said.
Rahul also recalled a conversation that his mother had with him yesterday.
“She told me yesterday that she goes on gut feeling and I go on thinking,” he said, but underscored that he felt that a leadership style would constantly evolve and change.
“In my evolution, I am going much more into listening to people and understand what is it that they are trying to do,” he said.
It is something, Gandhi said in a different context, that he thinks Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders need to do more. “Have conversations with people and listen to them,” he said.
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