Vaishnavi Patil, 26, was supposed to share the stage with Rahul Gandhi at a Congress party event for women in Pune last month. She could not address the crowd because of time constraints but was far from disappointed.
“This was the first event where a political party head was talking about women-centric issues,” the researcher told Scroll after the event.
More than a thousand kilometres away in Delhi, the significance of what happened in Pune was not lost on Kritika Jain either. The 22-year-old psychology graduate said that she was “shocked” to see a male politician talk about the patriarchal nature of Indian society.
“Oh my god! Wow! Is this for real?” she remembered thinking when she came across snippets from Gandhi’s speech on Instagram. “When I thought about it more, I was actually impressed.”
Scroll spoke to young women from several Indian cities and found much the same sentiment. Clearly, Gandhi had struck a chord with a constituency that is otherwise neglected in Indian politics: young, urban women.
However, most interviewees were quick to add that statements alone would not make them vote for the Congress party in future elections. They wanted to see Gandhi and his party do more for women before they decided to get behind him.
Beyond welfare
In Pune, Gandhi...
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