New Delhi, Aug 23 — The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi has neither vision nor any positive agenda, and therefore he is trying to mislead the nation with baseless remarks, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Bansuri Swaraj, reacting to the Congress MP describing women folk as the “greatest asset” of the country at the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ event.
The Congress leader, speaking at the “Chhatron Ki Goonj” programme in Pune on Saturday, described women as India’s biggest strength as well as an asset and argued that their identities should not be merely restricted to their relationships with men.
Rahul’s remarks, however, failed to impress the BJP as the latter called out his ‘duplicity’ on issues pertaining to women and their rights, with many women BJP leaders questioning him as to why he and his party put roadblocks to women’s reservation in the legislative bodies.
Reacting to Rahul’s women empowerment pitch, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj accused him of resorting to cheap sensationalism for traction on social media.
Speaking to IANS, she said, “It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, in order to strengthen the foundation of Viksit Bharat, gave the core mantra of 'women-led development’. That is why, under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, more than 50% of the bank accounts opened belong to the women of our country.”
Further listing the achievements for women under the NDA government, she stated, “Two-thirds of the beneficiaries of Mudra Yojana comprise women; more than 10 crore women, particularly in rural belts, have got freedom from smoke-filled kitchens, as it is the Modi government which provided them alternate clean cooking fuel in terms of subsidised LPG cylinders. In Defence, the first batch of women cadets graduated from National Defence Academy (NDA) under this government. In India’s mushrooming start-up sector, a whopping 48 per cent of them have women in leadership roles.”
Accusing Rahul and the Congress party of exploiting women issues to further their political agenda, she asked why they blocked passage and implementation of 33 per cent reservation for women.
“When the government brought a law to empower them politically, by allowing them thirty-three per cent reservation in legislative bodies, I want to ask Rahul Gandhi - if you truly want the political empowerment of women, and if you plead so much for women's empowerment, then why did you block Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam legislation from passage in the Parliament? Why did you oppose it? Why didn’t you allow it to become reality?" Swaraj asked.
“This is because the women’s reservation issue is just a political gimmick for them to further their agenda. They don’t want women to be in leadership positions and rather want to see them restricted to polling booths as a vote bank,” she further said.