External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday criticised the Opposition for calling the Bharatiya Janata Party “anti-women”. She pointed out that there were six women in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet and that the BJP government in Gujarat had introduced 142 welfare schemes for women, IANS reported.
“Rivals call the Bharatiya Janata Party an anti-women party, but it made four women chief ministers and four women governors, as well,” Swaraj said at a Mahila Town Hall in Ahmedabad. “The party is making every effort to resolve issues related to women’s safety, empowerment and self-reliance.”
She also denounced Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh discriminated against women. “How many women are there in the RSS?” he had said on October 10 during a rally in Gujarat’s Vadodara. “Have you ever seen any woman in shakhas wearing shorts? I have never seen.”
Swaraj said such remarks were unbecoming of a leader set to take over as president of a leading political party. “If he had asked why are women not allowed in the RSS, then I would have given him a logical answer, but his question is vulgar and it does not deserve an answer,” she said, according to the IANS report.
Swaraj also highlighted that two women, including her, were part of the Cabinet Committee on Security. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is the other member of the committee.
Minister of Textiles and Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Uma Bharti and Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal are the other women in the Union Cabinet.
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