Following the Congress rally in Gujarat, Congress president Rahul Gandhi interacted with students at the Stella Maris college in Chennai on Wednesday, March 13.
Addressing a gathering of over 3,000 women, Gandhi took on the Narendra Modi government on key issues such as jobs, education and women’s safety. Following are the highlights of the interaction speech:
- “There is an ideological battle going on in India and it is very sharply divided between two ideologies. One ideology is a unifying ideology which says that all people of this country should live together happily… All states, all languages, especially your beautiful language (Tamil) should have play in the country. No state should feel, suppressed, pressurised and oppressed.”
- “And on the other side you have an ideology which is represented by the current govt and the Prime Minister where they believe that one idea should be imposed on the country, they have a very particular role of women in our society and they feel that different languages, different cultures are inferior to one centralising culture.”
- “We are convinced that India is spending way too little money on education. We feel India needs to spend much more on education, our target is to spend 6%.”
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- “I think the way Indian women are treated, leaves a lot to be desired. South India is significantly better than North India on this front. Tamil Nadu is one of the leaders in how it treats its women..there is still a lot of improvement required in Tamil Nadu as well.”
- “I look at the parliament house, I look at the Vidhan Sabhas, I look at states and frankly, I don’t see enough women in leadership positions. I don’t see them leading enough companies.. One of the things we have decided that in 2019, we are going to pass the Women’s Reservation bill in Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabhas, and we’re also going to reserve 33% of all government jobs at the national level for women. It’s a starting point.”
- “What do you think about the levels of employment in India today? Do you feel comfortable that after leaving this college you will get a job easily?” (Loud, resounding “No” from students.)
- “How many times have you seen the Prime Minister of India standing here like this, being open to any question from anybody? Why doesn’t the Prime Minister have the guts to come and stand in front of 3000 women and be questioned by them?”
- At one point, Gandhi asked the students what they thought of demonetisation. “Did you like demonetisation? Do you think it was a good economic decision?” (Another resounding “No” from the students.)
- Corruption and crony-capitalism are a huge barrier to growth in India.
- “Today, India is looking inwards, India is fighting, India is divided. And when you are a divided nation, when you have anger in the nation, you cannot rule….India is at war with itself. Hindus are fighting Muslims; South is fighting North; Northeast is burning. That mood has to be changed. Everybody in this country is India’s asset. India has to utilise all it’s people if it has to grow.”
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