Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday addressed the annual general
meeting of FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO) in Delhi.
Interestingly Modi is speaking at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (FICCI), which is the rival of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
where Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi interacted 4 days ago.
Modi interacted with women entrepreneurs and talked about women’s role and power in India.
He said that although our society has made great progress but the status of women in India has depleted in the past hundred years.
"In our culture, mothers have the highest place. But a lot of bad things have crept into our society. In the 18th century female foeticide had started," Modi said.
"Sometimes I feel our situation has become worse than that in the 18th century. In the 21st century, girls are being killed in the womb. Both men and women are equally responsible for that," he added.
Modi agrees that this problem exists in Gujarat as well.
But slowly changes are being brought. Modi said, “Why is only the father's name used when a child is being admitted to school? The mother takes all the pain is giving birth to a child, raising the child. In Gujarat's schools, we ask for the mother's name for a child's admission, not the father's".
Gujarat CM said, “If we have to create a modern India, we have to take pride in our women and their power. When given a chance, women have far out-performed men”.
Narendra Modi cited various examples of women’s achievement in India throughout his address:
He gave example of Lijjat Paapad, which was started by a group of tribal women from Gujarat. He said, “Lijjat Paapad was started by tribal women as a cooperative on a loan of Rs. 80. Today their business has gone to crores”.
Modi further added that no human was perfect and he was no different. "Everyone has some weakness or the other. I too have shortcomings. I may have some weakness which I may not be able to see but you will be able to. If you spot any such weakness (in me), please convey them through the social media ... so that I can free myself of my weaknesses."
In his 70-minute interaction, which included questions he took from the overwhelmingly female audience, Modi took a swipe at both the Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi.
Insisting that Gujarat needed to see much more economic development, he said he had been busy since assuming office in 2001 filling up the many "pits" left behind by decades of Congress rule.
"So far I have only done the work of filling up the pits," he said, inviting laughter in the packed venue. "You can imagine what massive pits the Congress created!"
And while referring to a Gujarati women Jassu Behn who popularized her pizzas, the chief minister underlined that she was no fake creation unlike "Kalavati", the woman Rahul Gandhi quoted during a parliament debate. “Now media will go to Ahmedabad to see if Jassu Behn is like Kalavati. So I must tell, you she died in Pune 5 years ago”.
While talking about Gujarat's economic successes, he admitted that a lot more needed to be done.
The chief minister said the Gujarat assembly had passed a legislation reserving 50 percent of all seats in local bodies to women, but it was yet to become law as Governor Kamla Beniwal had not signed it.
|
|
Comments:
