KOLLAM (KERALA): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that politics and international relations in current times were "running towards darkness" and away from knowledge.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, further said that there was no attempt to understand the other person, be it politics or international relations, and violence was resorted to over disagreements.
"Today, we see in our politics, in international relations, that everyone is running towards darkness and away from knowledge. There is no attempt to understand the other person, you just bomb and kill them."
"It is the same in our politics. You don't agree with someone, you attack that person or become violent towards them," he alleged.
He was speaking at an event here commemorating the centenary of a meeting between Mahatma Gandhi and reformist saint Sree Narayana Guru.
He said that both Gandhi and Narayana Guru were against such violence and advocated love, respect, forgiveness and understanding between the people.
In his speech, he further said that the Constitution also contains these values advocated by Narayana Guru and Mahatma Gandhi.
He referred to both of them as guides and teachers who showed the direction to be followed by people.
Rahul further said that it was easy for anyone to place flowers in tribute before the statue or image of Narayana Guru, but the challenge was to follow his teachings.
The Congress leader also said that Mahatma Gandhi had fought the strongest empire in the world at that time and no matter what that they did to him, he was not affected.
Gandhi was inspired by and spoke to people like Narayana Guru during his fight against that strong system.
"From Mahatma Gandhi's fight against the British, I realised there is a difference between power and force," the LoP said.
"The British empire had force, but they had no power. Gandhiji had no force, but he had the truth, so he had power. In the same way, Narayana Guruji had no strength, he did not have huge amounts of wealth, he did not drive in a fancy car, but he was easily the most powerful man in Kerala during his time," he said.
"Imagine power that a hundred years later, the entire political class of Kerala have come to commemorate him," Gandhi added.
He further said that the message that Mahatma Gandhi and Narayana Guru have given to those who use violence and hatred is that "nothing can be gained from it, only something can be lost".
"The political fight in India is also very similar. On one side, there is truth, non-violence, humility and on ther other side there is anger, violence, hatred and arrogance. Those with violence and anger may have force, but they have no power because the spirit of people like Narayana Guruji and Mahatma Gandhiji and in fact, the spirit of India is fundamentally based on the idea of truth and non-violence," he said.
The Congress MP said it was a great honour for him to come here and he bowed his head to both Narayana Guruji and Mahatama Gandhiji "for showing India and her people the correct direction to move towards".