'Grace, Courage And Forgiveness': Priyanka Gandhi Asks Women To Create Their Own Destiny At TN Event

Priyanka Gandhi spoke at length on women's empowerment and the barriers that still hold them from giving their best and demanded immediate implementation of the women's reservation bill.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday hailed the women of the country and urged them to create their own destiny leaving behind everything that society has decided for them. Reminding them of their grace, courage and forgiveness among other traits, Priyanka said that women are the bedrock upon which families and societies are built, brick by brick irrespective of the place, financial situation and everything else. She was speaking at the centenary birthday celebrations of veteran politician and former Tamil; Nadu Chief Minister Thiru K Karunanidhi.

The women's wing of CM MK Stalin's party DMK had organised a 'Women Rights Conference' in Chennai. Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti and DMK MP Kanimozhi were among the attendees of the programme.

Priyanka expressed gratitude for commemorating the hundredth birth anniversary of Thiru K Karunanidhi and sharing the stage on this occasion with the women of Tamil Nadu. Calling out to women present at the event, the Congress leader said that she was there to remind them that they are the strength of India. 

"You are my mothers, you are my sisters, and I am honored to be here today, to have the opportunity to speak to you about us: the women of India. I am here to remind you that we are the strength of this proud and beautiful nation which is our motherland," she said.

"My sisters, No matter how rich we are, or how poor we are, No matter whether we live in big cities, small towns or villages, No matter how well educated we are, or how much lack of opportunity we have faced....We are the bedrock upon which our families and societies are built, brick by brick," Priyanka added.

She said it is the women who carry the weight of society on their shoulders, and that they do it with grace and courage. "We do it with tenacity and strength of will, and our capacity to absorb pain and suffering is immense We are proud of these qualities which have been passed on in our bones through generations and generations of oppression," she said.

 

Priyanka Remembers Visiting TN During Father Rajiv Gandhi's Death

While addressing the gathering, Priyanka Gandhi also remembered the day when she first came to Tamil Nadu after her father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. 

"Almost thirty two years ago, on the darkest night of my life, I first set foot on this land of Tamil Nadu to collect my father’s shattered body. I was nineteen years old, and my mother was just a few years younger than I am today. As the door of the plane opened, the night grabbed us and drew us in, but I was not afraid of it because the worst thing I could have imagined had already happened," she recalled.

Revisiting the painful experience she had her family wen through, she said, "A few hours earlier, my father had been killed. I had walked towards my mother that night knowing that the words I was to speak would break her heart, yet I spoke them, and I watched as the light of happiness was extinguished from her eyes forever."

"We walked down the stairs of the plane onto the tarmac of Meenambaakam airport terminal, shocked and alone. Then suddenly, as if sent by the embarrassed Gods who had failed us, a crowd of women dressed in blue saris surrounded us," she said.

Priyanka added the ladies at the airport were those who used to work there. She said they held Sonia Gandhi in their arms and cried inconsolably with her as if they were all "my mothers", as if they too had lost their beloved.

"In those shared tears, a bond formed between my heart and the women of Tamil Nadu, that I can neither explain, nor ever erase," Priyanka told the women of Tamil Nadu.

 

Priyanka On Periyar's Views On Women's Empowerment

Reminding the women of their inner capabilities, Priyanka said that women are the ones who nurture and hold, who give to their children and to all those around them unfailingly. "We are the ones who teach courage, the ones who teach love. It is us who understand forgiveness, and us who know how to fight fearlessly in the face of adversity. We are the workforce powering our nation forward, and we are the millions of young women aspiring towards a better future," she said.

Mentioning Thandai Periyar's work on women empowerment, she said, "It was almost a hundred years ago that Thandai Periyar asked: Why were women enslaved?"

"Then he answered this question in a series of revolutionary essays in which he wrote about the economic and social enslavement of women. It was he, who laid the foundation for the empowerment of women in Tamil Nadu, which Thiru Annaaduraai and Thiru Karunaanidhi carried forward. My sisters, this empowered you, the women of Tamil Nadu to show the way of emancipation and progress to the rest of India," she further said.

Noting that women are still struggling with the harsh reality of an entrenched patriarchy that ensures the systemic oppression of women, the Congress leader said that the question that Periya asked long back is still the same: "‘Why are women enslaved?"

Answering the same, Priyanka said that women have been taught generation after generation after generation, to cede their power to others.

"We have been taught to talk softly, to step aside, to be ashamed of honouring our essence, to take care of everyone else before we show compassion to ourselves. And unfortunately we have learned these lessons only too well, so well that we have passed them down," she said.

She said that when political parties today have realised role of women and their collective force, they still look at them with "greed".

"Greed for votes, and the greed to capture our power and use it, to keep us down," she said.

Demanding immediate implementation of the women's reservation bill, Priyanka said, "On your behalf today, my sisters, I demand more.
I demand that we own our power. I demand the immediate implementation of the women’s reservation bill. We, the women of India have no more time to waste. It is our right to be counted in the political process. I demand that our worth is valued and respected as a political instrument for our own empowerment."

She called on the people to reject all kinds of systems: societal, religious or political, which thrive on women's oppression and force them to collude with it.

"My sisters, nothing can hold back the power of women when we stand as one. We are half the population of this country – HALF - no less. It is for us to set aside barriers of caste, religion, state, language and society. It is for us to recognise ourselves, first and foremost as sisters who can unify into an unstoppable momentum for change," she said.

"Today as we stand here to commemorate Thiru Karunanidhi - a leader who understood the power of women, let us awaken to a new dawn. Let us create our own destiny," Priyanka Gandhi concluded.