Priyanka Gandhi Vadra recently shared a touching story about Mother Teresa while campaigning in Wayanad, Kerala. During an election meeting, she recounted how the revered figure visited her home months after the assassination of her father, Rajiv Gandhi, urging her to dedicate herself to helping the needy.
“I want to say how grateful I am for the love I am getting here. A few days ago, I came to file a nomination paper. When I arrived, I stopped and talked to people, one of them was from the Army… he said that his mother wanted to meet me, but she couldn’t walk, so I walked to his house… She hugged me as if I was her child. I can truthfully tell you I did not feel any difference between my mother and her… I felt like I had a mother here in Wayanad. That is how you made me feel,” Priyanka expressed at the gathering. Priyanka Gandhi was moved by Mother Teresa’s influence and subsequently engaged with her organization. “When she handed me a rosary (to give to my mother), I felt how I felt when I was 19 years old. My father had just died, 6-7 months later, Mother Teresa came to my house to meet my mother. I had a fever, so I didn’t go out of the room. She came to the room and put her hand on my head. She took my hand and put a rosary in my hand just like this. She asked me to work with her. After 5-6 years, I went to work with her sisters. My job was to teach kids… We cleaned bathrooms, and cooked food. I began to understand their pain, what service means, and how a community can support them. I saw how the community helped each other during a landslide in Wayanad. Each one of you helped… It made me proud, you are courageous people,” she shared.
Priyanka criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging he favors his “friends” with policies. Rahul Gandhi, her brother, praised Priyanka for caring for their mother, Sonia Gandhi, after their father’s death.
“My mother is sitting here. After my father died, it was my sister who looked after my mother. She was 17 years old when Papa died; my mother lost everything; my sister lost everything, but my sister looked after my mother,” he said.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is running for Congress in the Wayanad by-polls, a seat previously held by Rahul Gandhi, who won from both Wayanad and Rae Bareli.
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Mother Teresa, an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity, passed away in 1997.