Priyanka Gandhi targets PM Modi at all-women rally in Patiala: ‘Stand up to falsehood, unite and decide who to vote for’
Priyanka Gandhi was campaigning for the Congress's candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, who is up against the BJP's Preneet Kaur, in Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi during a election rally in Khanna. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh) Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday asked the women in Punjab to be united, understand the power within, stand up to “falsehood” and make sure Lok Sabha elections in 2024 are fought on real issues.
In her ‘Nari Nyay Sammelan’, a rally specially for women in Patiala to seek votes for Congress candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, Priyanka said she is the daughter-in-law of a Punjabi family, and her mother-in-law had taught her to stand up and not buckle and bend under pressure.
“We women are not united. We are not able to understand the power of this unity. My mother-in-law taught me that if I do not stand up, then everybody will force me to bend. I am teaching you this. We should tell them that they will not tell us that someone will steal their buffalo. Or, they will tell us that if voted to power, Congress will put X-ray machines in our houses and steal ‘mangalsutras.’ Together, we should decide how we vote, not watch advertisements on TV, and not believe in falsehood. We should decide on who would secure our children’s future,” said Priyanka as she hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had said the Congress manifesto promised that if it came to power it would calculate gold belonging to mothers and sisters and then redistribute it. They “won’t even spare your mangalsutra,” he said at an election rally in Rajasthan last month.
“The election should be fought on our issues. We are 50 per cent of this country. We are half the population; we should stand up and tell them (the BJP) that we do not want this divisive politics; we do not want our farmers to be treated the way they were. As many as 600 lost their lives when they sat for two years on the Delhi border. And the prime minister did not have a minute to talk to them. Who will have the courage to talk about all this if we stand up? Who will have the courage to say that Congress will steal your buffalo? How will they say all this if they know women are united.”
Priyanka spares Amarinder Singh, wife
Campaigning for Dr Gandhi in former chief minister Amarinder Singh’s citadel, Patiala, Priyanka kept her guns trained at PM Modi and did not say a word against Amarinder or his wife Preneet Kaur, the BJP candidate. Amarinder and Gandhi were known to be close to each other until Amarinder was ousted unceremoniously by the Congress as chief minister in September 2021. All 13 seats in Punjab will go to poll in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 on June 1.
She kept at the attack and said, “The PM talks strange things. We feel ashamed of what he is saying. We are his opponents. Still, we feel shame. We have a ‘maryada’ of the country. They say Congress will bring an X-ray machine to your house and steal your mangal sutra. Is the PM thinking that the women in this country are stupid that they will believe that there is an X-ray machine that can steal mangalsutra?”
She reminded the Punjabis of the pain of partition when she said her father-in-law’s family had left everything in Sialkot in Pakistan and came to India to start afresh from Moradabad. “From them, I learnt Punjabiyat. I learnt how strong they are, how they work hard, how they are there for each other during difficult times.”
She also mentioned how her family was “strict” and they had to seek permission from “(former prime minister) Indira (Gandhi) ji to get up from the dining table and how her mother had not allowed her Punjabi friends to dance ahead of her wedding when they were dancing on tunes of ‘kali teri gut te paranda tera lal ni”.
Touching on the issues of inflation and unemployment, she lamented how it was challenging to buy everyday kitchen stuff, how the price of LPG cylinders had reached Rs 1,200, and how well-educated youth were without jobs.
“Punjab has made a huge contribution to the nation. Farmers helped the country usher in the era of green revolution and martyrs from this state helped the nation in the battle of Independence,” she said.
She added, “I do not feel like seeking your votes during election time. I want to talk to you. We are sisters, we have children. We want our children to have a strong future. We should look at each other with love, be together, and help each other. We look unto our leaders to show us a righteous path, path of unity. Unfortunately, this government at the Centre believes in dividing, and working to get power.”
She said, “Only a woman can understand the struggle of women. We know that we are not heard. We bring up other generations. That means we are building the country. We decide what would be the future of our children. We teach children not to tell lies and not to do wrong, Yet the BJP does not say a single word about women or what plans they have to help women. He gave reservation but later we found out it would not be implemented for 10 years.” Priyanka was referring to the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023, which reserves one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies.
“In Hathras, a woman was raped; her mother was not shown the face of the girl. She was cremated at night. In Unnao, also, a rape happened, and the fields of her father were set afire. He was beaten up, but Modi ji did not do anything. In Manipur, a woman was paraded naked. In Karnataka also, a leader raped 100-200 women. Modi ji asked for votes while standing next to him,” Priyanka added in an oblique referenece to Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is accused of sexually abusing several women.
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