(Image source from: India Today)

Only a month left for Lok Sabha elections in India and political parties are campaigning in full swing.

Indian National Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday visited Stella Maris College in Chennai and addressed scores of women. He asked: “How many times have you seen the Prime Minister of India standing in the middle of 3,000 women like this? How many times have you seen the Prime Minister of India like this, being open to any question from anybody?”

During his campaign speech, he used the almost all-women audience to highlight the lack of women in high-ranking roles. He promised if the party came into power in 2019, to solve that.

“Frankly, I don’t see enough women in leadership positions,” he said, after which he assured that the Congress would pass the Women’s Reservation Bill to ensure more women are represented in the state legislatures and the Parliament, which is a long-standing promise of several political parties in India, that has not yet seen fulfilling.

However, Rahul also promised that 33 percent of government jobs at all levels will be reserved for women if the Congress comes to power. He stopped short of mentioning potential reservations for women candidates fielded by his own party though.

The session, for the most part, involved the students asking various questions to the Congress president, who urged them to make him “uncomfortable” with challenging questions. One student asked about the investigation into Robert Vadra, his brother-in-law.

“The government has every right and should investigate every single person,” he said. However, he went on to say that the law was being applied selectively, bringing up the Rafale controversy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged involvement.

Rahul was also asked about his hug with Prime Minister Modi earlier this year. “I learnt from Mr. Modi. I can’t hate Mr. Modi. Can you hate people who teach you things? Your biggest teachers are the people who attack you, the people who abuse you. They are your biggest teachers,” he said.

“If they give you hate, and you give them hate, you learn nothing. If they give you hate, and you hug them. You learn a lot,” he added.

By Sowmya Sangam