Guwahati: Six hundred women comprising professionals, retired ones, students, home makers and Congress workers were made to wait for over three hours in Jorhat stadium for an interaction with Rahul Gandhi, the visiting Congress vice-president, but they were not complaining as they were overwhelmed by the charm of the Congress leader who finally arrived around 5-30 PM to interact with them on a cool ad compose manner.
“I want an India where women feel safe everywhere, in bus, on the street, everywhere. How can we expect to become a super power if our women don’t feel safe,” Rahul said during the interaction with women before winding up his two-day visit to Assam.
Responding to various questions and suggestions put forward by the women, Rahul said, “I want to see women in all powerful places — in the state assemblies, in the Parliament as you are more intelligent, have more patience, hardly show your anger. You have better leadership quality.” Rahul said he was for increasing the women reservation in Parliament and legislative assemblies to 50 per cent from the present 33 per cent. “Women are more intelligent than men, more capable than men. Yet we spend our whole time in this country every day disrespecting them and we talk about super power,” the Congress leader said.
Earlier, NSG personnel were having harrowing time when Rahul Gandhi embarked on a 65-kilometer journey by road from Nagaon to Tezpur meeting people, hand-shaking with people all along his route.
The first thing he did in the morning of Wednesday was to seek blessings of Ma Kamakhya in the ancient Kamakhya Temple. Then he interacted with students of Don Bosco University on way to Guwahati airport where he took a chopper to Nagaon town.
Thousands of people lined up on both sides of the road from Nagaon to Tezpur to greet and have a glimpse of Rahul who was standing at the front doorway of his luxury SUV. The road shown by the Congress vice-president brought the traffic in parts of the arterial National Highway 175 to a standstill for hours.
He travelled 65 kilometers on along the road from Nagaon to Tezpur through Uriya Gaon, Samaguri and Kathpara. The Congress party set up a temporary ethnic village at Uriya Gaon in Nagaon to showcase the rural agrarian life and ethnic culture and tradition of Assam before Gandhi.Rahul also had a brief stopover at Hanhchora village near Samaguri have a look at the handicraft products of the women of the village dominated by Scheduled Caste community.
Meanwhile, Opposition AGP flayed Rahul Gandhi for failing to address to the burning problems of Assam.