Rahul Gandhi at Bharat Summit: New era of politics demands new types of leaders

Hyderabad: Highlighting that democratic politics has fundamentally changed across the globe, Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said there is a need to construct new types of politicians to run democracy.

He said traditional political tools no longer face the concentration of capital, modern media, modern social media and this is a bigger challenge for democratic parties.

“When I speak to younger members of party, the tools that worked 10 years ago, simply do not work anymore. They cannot face the concentration of capital, modern media, modern social media, so in a sense, the old politician is dead, and a new type of politicians need to be constructed,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Delivering a keynote address at the Bharat Summit 2025 on Saturday, Gandhi said as the Congress party felt completely trapped and isolated due to the new aggressive form of politics, he decided to take out a Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

“All our avenues were compromised, including the media. That’s when we reached back into history and decided to walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, which is a 4,000-km journey,” the Congress leader said.

Reflecting on his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi said during the padyatra thousands of people from various sections of society joined him and it also helped him listen to their problems and this experience changed everything. Congress leader stated that until the yatra he had never used the word ‘love’ in politics. But once he did, people began to respond.

“The greatest and most powerful disruption to hatred is the idea of love and affection. While we may disagree on policy matters, the framework that we use and the lens we use for our politics must be love, affection and listening to the people that we represent,” he added.