Bengaluru: Priyanka Gandhi, General Secretary, AICC addressed the 'Naa Nayaki Convention' in Bengaluru, Karnataka, today. Priyanka Gandhi said- It is a great honor for me to be here today. You are the people of Karnataka, you are intelligent, hard working, and strong and you have made the whole country proud. All over the world, you are recognised for your diligence and for your hard work. You have built so many industries in Karnataka- the IT industry and many more.
Priyanka Gandhi said,''More than anything else, my sisters, I am proud of you, because you are the source of this energy and this identity. It is you on whose shoulders this whole society rests. It is you, who have built Karnataka. I say from my heart, I believe this is true, because without you supporting your family, going out and working and being strong the way you are, and being courageous, you could not have built the state. You are the daughters of Ma Bhuvaneshvari and Ma Chamundeshwari. Her Shakti is within each one of you. You have descended from a great legacy of strong women, Kittur Rani Chennamma Ji, you are her daughters. Your state has a legacy of, history of non violence and of equality. Bhagwan Basavanna recognised the essence of every human being.
congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said,''For him, everybody was equal- nobody's caste matters, nobody's religion matters, it didn't matter if you were a man or woman, everybody was equal in his eyes and that is the foundation of your society and your culture. I deeply believe that it is women, who uphold our culture and tradition. It is women, who bring changes. It is women, who make our society, what it is,''she said.
Priyanka Gandhi said,''You know, I was brought up by two very brave and strong women. The first was my grandmother, Indira Ji. I saw her; I was 8 years old when she lost her son. Her son was only 33 years old. But, the very next day, she got up and went to work to serve her nation. That was the essence of duty, she had. That was her Inner Shakti, that her heart was broken, she had lost her child, but, she put her country first and she went to work the next day and she continued to serve the country until she died,''she said.
Smt. Said,'' I was brought up by my mother Sonia Ji. At the age of 21, she fell in love with my father Shri Rajiv Gandhi and she came all the way from Italy to India to get married to him. She struggled to learn our traditions, she learnt the ways of India, she understood and imbibed everything from Indira Ji and at the age of 44, she lost her beloved husband and even though she disliked politics, she took the path of service to the nation and she served India for all of her life till today, when she is now 76 years old.
Priyanka Gandhi said,'From these two women and from hundreds of women that I have met through my life, ordinary women who struggle every day, I have learnt one very important thing. No matter, what happens to you in your life, no matter how big the tragedy you face, how deep your struggles are, whether they are at home or they are at work or outside, you have the capacity to stand up and fight for yourself.
Each one of you, sisters who are sitting here today, I know you have big struggles. I know what you face and I know, especially, the kind of hardships you have been facing in the last few years and I know that every day for you, is a question of how strong you are to face the next day. It is a question of your resilience and your ability to hold your family together, to fight for yourself and your family. But, I know one thing- it is you and only you, who can make the change.
So, I want to ask you today standing here. My sisters! Is it not time for you to start making a change? What is it that you want out of your lives? You want education? Yes or no? You want employment, Jobs. You want a bright future for yourself, for your children, do you want the freedom to make choices for yourself and to make the right choices for your families, you want it right? So, who is going to give it to you? Who is going to give it to you?
You are not recognising how powerful you are! You are half of this country's population. In every single household, there are as many of you as there are men. In every village, in very town, you are strong, but, you must recognize your courage and your strength. The biggest strength you have is political. Have you seen, how political parties know that okay, I will make these people happy, I will get their vote? Why do they not say that they will work for women? Why are you not forcing every political party to take note and to start working for your equality and your rights?
I will ask you a very simple question. I don't want to criticize the BJP only because I am opposing them, I am not interested. I want to ask you all my sisters sitting here one simple question and I want the answer. In the last so many years that the BJP has been in power, has your life become better or not? (Women replied- No!). Answer me loudly, yes or no (Women again replied- No!) I can't hear. (Women again replied loudly- No!) No! Your life has not become better. Have prices gone down? Have you got jobs? Has anything in your life become more positive and happy? It has not! So, it is a very simple question. It is not so complicated, ''said Priyanka Gandhi.
The elections are coming in a few months. I ask you only one thing. Look at the last few years, evaluate your own life and think about, whether it has become better, whether you have got the facilities you require, whether the people in power have cared about your problems or has your life become more difficult?
I am told that the situation in Karnataka is very shameful. I am told that your ministers are taking 40 per cent commission on jobs, that Rs 1.5 lakh crore of your money, your earnings has been looted, only through corruption. Think about, if some development work is to take place in Bengaluru for Rs. 8,000 crores and Rs 3,200 crores of that is going into commission. There are shameful scams like the PSI scams, where police posts are being sold. You educate your children, your young girls and boys to get them jobs, is this what you expect from the people who are in power? You have to pay bribes for driving licenses, housing, transfer, everything,''said Priyanka Gandhi.
I am told that many of my sisters in Bengaluru, who work in the garment industry, went through a very difficult time during Covid, but, none of you got any assistance from the government. The Government did nothing to help you through these difficult times and it's not just the sisters who are working in Bengaluru, or the roads of Bengaluru which are full of potholes, but, it's farmers who are committing suicide because they cannot face the next day, 2.5 lakh of government jobs are lying vacant, they have not been filled. Crimes against women are sky high.
Priyanka Gandhi said,'' I believe, I have been told that 40 such crimes take place in every single day. You know how much you have to get a gas cylinder today and how much you used to pay to get it 8 years ago. Life has become unaffordable. Whether it is fees, marriage ceremonies, competitive exams, everything has become a burden, but, nobody is holding the government accountable. Nobody is asking them about these things. So, they are busy creating distractions, busy changing syllabus in textbooks, changing the teachings of Bhagwan Basavanna in the textbooks, creating controversies rather than creating jobs, ''said Priyanka Gandhi.
The entire policy functions to benefit a few business people. These few people become richer and richer and the rest of the country is becoming poorer and poorer. All the sources for jobs have practically shut down. The PSUs have been sold to the Prime Minister's rich friends. Instead of giving incentives to agriculture, where jobs can be produced, agriculture is suffering, farmers are suffering and you know better than I do that small businesses and medium size businesses have suffered tremendously due to GST, Demonetization and many of the policies of the government. There are other sources of jobs and if you compare this to Congress governments, you see, that the Congress brought in Land Reforms; it had leaders like Shri Devaraj Urs. It waived off loans for farmers, Rs. 8,000 crores of loans were waived off,'' said she.
Priyanka Gandhi said,''The IT Hub was built by the Congress Party along with all your efforts and hard work, because the Congress Party respected your hard work. You had schemes like Anna Bhagya, where 7 kilos of food grains and 1 kg of Toor Dal was given to 3.8 crore beneficiaries. Indira canteen, Ksheera Bhagya, Mathru Poorna schemes through which all of you have been benefited and so many other schemes like Self Help Groups schemes, even Anganwadi workers and helpers, their wages were increased, so many things were done by the Congress Party.
So, today my sisters, I am here to announce the 'Naa Nayaki Scheme'. Naa Nayaki meaning is- 'I am a leader'. Say- Naa Nayaki. (Women repeated- Naa Nayaki). Say it loudly, nicely. Naa Nayaki (Women again chanted, Naa Nayaki), Naa Nayaki (Women one more time chanted, Naa Nayaki), Naa Nayaki (Women one more time again chanted, Naa Nayaki). This is your chance to start changing your life, to start changing politics, to ask for women to be respected equally and this scheme is especially for those women, who are working hard day and night at home, supplementing everything, helping to build society but, are ignored by everybody.
Priyanka Gandhi said,''So in this scheme, each head of a family, who is a woman, will get Rs. 2,000 per month that means, Rs. 24,000 will be directly sent to your account in a year. This is called the Gruh Laxmi Yojna and it is part of the bigger scheme of 'Naa Nayaki'. I told them and they invited me for this function. I told DK Ji, Surjewala Ji, Siddaramaiah Ji, I said I will come to announce this, if you promise me that you will make a separate women's manifesto, because there is not one thing that we want to do to make you strong, there are many things that we want to do to be able to make you stand up on your own feet and fight for yourself. You know, we have also announced 200 units free electricity recently. So 200 units of free electricity will be provided to every house and in addition my colleagues will be announcing in their women's manifesto many new schemes for all of you to be able to move forward and to bring a change in your life.
she said,''So, do you believe in a strong Karnataka, Yes or No? Do you believe in a strong society? Are you going to build that strong Karnataka and that strong society? Are you going to lead the way? Are you going to be the leaders of your society, your homes, your villages and your states and your country? Just remember that it is in your hands to be that. It is in your hands to bring about change that transforms your society and your state. It is in your hands to ask for a politics that talks about your issues, your development, and the things that matter in your life.
congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said,''It tells you about progress, development, education, jobs. Those are the questions you must ask and I am going to ask you to promise me that in this election, this is what you are going to ask every politician, who comes in front of you. Promise me, say- I promise that I will demand that my issues are heard.
When we first made a women's manifesto in Uttar Pradesh, many people laughed at us and even though nothing came out of it in terms of votes, we managed to make every political party notice women and respond to the needs of women. Today, even the BJP has been first to put ads in the newspapers, showing what they do for women.
So, by a small thing what we did, we managed to make political parties aware of the fact that they have to be answerable to women. So, I urge you to make this election about you and about your future., ''said Priyanka Gandhi.