Rahul Gandhi pushes for more women leaders in Congress; 50% women chief ministers within 10 yrs

Kochi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that the party should actively promote women within its organisational structure and set a target to have 50 per cent of women as chief ministers within the next 10 years. Inaugurating 'Utsaah,' a Kerala Mahila Congress convention here, the Wayanad MP said there are numerous women leaders in his party who possess the qualities necessary to become chief ministers. "Earlier, I was discussing what would be a good target for us to try and achieve, and I thought a good target for the Congress party would be that in 10 years from today, 50 per cent of our chief ministers are women.

"Today, we don't have a single woman chief minister. But I know there are many women in the Congress party who have the qualities to be very good chief ministers," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader also attacked the RSS and said it was "purely a male organisation".

"I think women are superior to men in many ways. They have more patience than men. They have longer-term vision than men. They are more sensitive and compassionate than men. We fundamentally believe that women should be part of the power structure," Gandhi said, alleging that including women is not part of the ideology of the RSS.

He said that in the entire history of the RSS, it has not allowed women into its ranks.

The former Congress president also said that the fundamental fight between the RSS and the Congress is about the role women should play in Indian politics. He criticised the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for putting on hold the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill despite receiving approval from Parliament. The Bill, aimed at reserving one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for women, had obtained parliamentary approval in September. "I have never seen any Bill passed in Parliament where it will be implemented a decade later. The only Bill that the BJP is implementing after 10 years is the one that has to do with women's power," Gandhi said.

He also referred to certain alleged statements of certain right-wing leaders saying a girl would not have been raped if she had dressed properly.

"This is an insult to every single woman in this country. It is turning the victim into the villain. This is the difference between us and the RSS," he said.