BJP committed to women empowerment: PM Narendra Modi

BENGALURU: Two days after Chief Minister Siddamaiah dared him to speak about achievements of the previous BJP government in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to him on Friday by listing out B S Yeddyurappa government’s initiatives for empowerment of women.

Interacting with his party’s Mahila Morcha members over video conferencing from Delhi, the PM said, the BJP government headed by Yeddyurappa had taken several initiatives for women empowerment. “People in the state still remember initiatives like ‘Bhagyalaxmi’ for girls from BPL families, Bala Sanjeevini to help malnourished children and distribution of cycles to high school girls. Such initiatives strengthened women and girl children, “ the PM said.

In the run-up to the May 12 polls, Congress and BJP leaders are using social media to take a dig at each other. While addressing rally in the state, the PM had challenged Congress president Rahul Gandhi to speak for 15 minutes about Siddaramaiah government’s achievements without referring to notes. In response, Siddaramaiah had dared the PM to speak about Yeddyurappa government’s achievements. On Friday, the PM seem to have responded to the challenge.

During the interaction, the PM said winning the polling booths must be the agenda and urged Mahila Morcha members to further the reach of government initiatives. He urged them to conduct marches in their polling booths with the women beneficiaries of several schemes like the Ujjwala.

He said India is moving towards ‘women-led development’ from just development of women. He mentioned about Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj taking part in international conferences.  That was a proud moment for the country as well as a commitment on part of the government to promote participation of women in decision making, he said.
  “Our commitment to Nari Shakti is complete and comprehensive,” he added.