TNN | Oct 20, 2011, 03.52AM IST
NEW DELHI: Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi threw his weight behind the unique identity (UID) scheme, saying the proposed innovation would give voting rights to migrants who otherwise stood without the basic right of democracy.
He cited UID and lack of franchise among migrants to seek tailoring of rules in tune with the world with greater connectivity, adding that UID-like solutions give voice to every person.
Rahul struck a cautious note on globalization, of which migration was a form, saying it excluded as much as it included citing poverty and lack of rights in the connected world.
He said globalization robbed people of local safety networks, saying a Vidarbha farmer committed suicide when global cotton prices tumbled and a Kerala resident working in the Gulf oil industry, while not being able to own a car, would be without food if there was no oil in the well.
Speaking at the 20th anniversary lecture of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies, where Prof Thomas Pogge of Yale University delivered the anniversary lecture on 'globalization, justice and rights',
Rahul said migration was turning India into a modern urban society from a village-based static one, but it was also leaving people without rights and justice, and with the curse of poverty, homelessness and trafficking of women.
According to Rahul, India had come a long way from 1947 when it was a poor, unconnected country where rigid caste system defined everyone's place in society and restricted the mobility of ideas, with tools of education and communication reserved for the elite.
Rahul said globalization could be traced back to 600 BC when a small sermon in northeast India spread beyond oceans and mountains, referring to Buddhism. "It spread as a message of compassion and non-violence - easily trespassing borders a couple of millennia before social media was conceived in the spacious dorm rooms of Mark Zuckerberg and company," he said.
He added that Mahatma Gandhi's ideas a century ago also galvanized spirits across continents.
Expounding on globalization, he added, "The term globalization is like the equally ubiquitous war on terror. They are both terms that capture everything and nothing at the same time."