"I’m glad I’ve now graduated from tourist to street fighter in their minds." In an exclusive conversation with Brut, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra talks about formally joining politics, the Congress in UP, and women.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00If you think that emancipating a woman is giving her a free gas cylinder, then it is
00:06going to be a futile exercise.
00:08You have been very proactive in the Hathras and in Agra, in Lakhimpur Kheri.
00:13How do you convince people that it's not optics?
00:19Well, it's not optics.
00:23This is Priyanka Gandhi, Valdhara for Groot.
00:25You've been associated with politics all your life.
00:28Would you like to understand why 2019 and what was the reason behind that officially?
00:34There is a joke in my family saying I'm the appendix to the dynasty.
00:38Please leave me out of it.
00:41Because I genuinely felt that I wanted to live my own personal life and I felt that
00:48there were enough of us in politics.
00:50I started feeling that I can't just sit around when everything that those who fought
00:58for our freedom and our constitution, everything was being brought into question.
01:03What has my journey been like?
01:05Very, very interesting, actually.
01:07Actually, being in politics is a very different experience.
01:10And I really, I have really learned a lot.
01:13It's shocking how much I've learned, actually.
01:16How would you say it's a different experience, if I may put it in terms of after formally
01:21coming in or hitting the ground?
01:23I think a lot of sort of dynamics that one only understands when one is actually fully
01:30involved in politics.
01:31We haven't been in power in UP for 30 years.
01:34So our organization structurally was very weak.
01:37So if you, for example, we had a committee at the state level, which is an executive
01:43committee, which was over 500 people.
01:45So my first question was, this is an executive committee.
01:48It's meant to work, report back, take responsibility.
01:52So how do you even call regular meetings of 500 people and hold them accountable for what
01:57they're doing?
01:58So I started off saying, OK, we have to reduce this to 50.
02:02We'll get young people.
02:04So I went a bit like a sledgehammer.
02:07Then I also realized that, no, there are people there who have been there for 20 years, 30
02:12years who have been holding the party flag up.
02:15They should not be cut out of this process.
02:17They have to be involved as well.
02:19Would you say that you are the chief ministerial candidate?
02:22We haven't taken a call on who is going to be the chief ministerial candidate yet.
02:26But when we do, you'll be sure to find out.
02:29Do you think fighting on development and putting the women at the center with what Congress
02:35is fighting, UP elections, would that be enough?
02:38Well, whether it's enough or not remains to be seen.
02:42My job is to do it and to fight and to fight for what I believe in.
02:45I'm doing that.
02:47If you look at, let's say, since this Larkiyon Larsaktiyon, we started maybe, it would be
02:53a month ago, and then we released the manifesto.
02:56Let's see what effect it has had on the other political parties.
02:59The Khilesi has announced certain measures for women.
03:02The Rashtraloktal has also announced.
03:06Modi ji yesterday had his first ever all-women's rally in which he made a bunch of announcements.
03:11So, what's happening here?
03:13What's happening is that the discourse is changing.
03:16What's happening is that by bringing women into the forefront as a force, we are saying
03:22you cannot ignore them.
03:23So, don't you think in some measure, Dish Kumar did it in Bihar in terms of, you know,
03:28banning alcohol because women wanted it.
03:30It was part of his manifesto of course.
03:32Or say the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections did it afterwards with Ujjwala Yojana.
03:38So, if you think that emancipating a woman is giving her a free gas cylinder, then it
03:46is going to be a futile exercise because you're not emancipating a woman.
03:52So, if you are actually looking to emancipate a woman and to get her to stand on her own
03:57feet, you want her to be strong, then you have to put in the right measures for her
04:02to be able to be strong, which is what we are trying to do.
04:05So, ours is not a, oh, for this election, let's do something that makes all the women
04:10vote for us exercise.
04:12Ours is a serious exercise where we are recognizing the power of women.
04:16We are telling them, get up, stand up for your own rights and make the change because
04:21you can.
04:22Of all people, actually you can.
04:2450% of the population, you know, people here, it's a caste-driven society and also religion
04:31is very sort of played up in politics and all that.
04:34People talk in terms of, we are so many people, you can get so many votes.
04:39Why not women?
04:41Why not women?
04:42Why is nobody even willing to look at them as a serious political force?
04:48Why, how can the political party that is in power actually believe their biggest flagship
04:56program for women is a free gas cylinder?
04:59I mean, seriously guys, you know, how can they actually get away with that?
05:04We are letting them get away with that.
05:11How do you convince people that it's not, it's not optics?
05:16Well, it's not optics.
05:18So I think people instinctively understand.
05:24They understand whether you're actually doing something because you care about it and you
05:28believe or you're doing it not okay.
05:31I think they have a good, people have a good encompass.
05:34When I went to Unnao, it really changed my perspective because I went to meet the family
05:43of this girl who had been raped and she had been burnt and killed after that.
05:49Everything possible had happened to that family.
05:52They had burnt the father's fields.
05:54They had dragged him out of his house and bashed him up.
05:57They had threatened her nine-year-old niece.
06:00They had threatened her Barbie Barbie.
06:02They had beaten up her sisters and brothers.
06:07They had accused her and vilified her.
06:11In fact, when I went there, a large section of the village was not on her side, was on
06:17the side of the people who had committed the crime.
06:20But when I was talking to them, the father was telling me that this girl, despite all
06:27of this happening, despite everything, despite even living in a village where most people
06:32were vilifying her, she was getting up in the morning every day to go and fight her
06:38case.
06:39She had to take a train to the other district library because they didn't take up her case
06:43in Unnao.
06:44So, she would tell her dad that,
06:53That spirit I have seen everywhere.
06:56A lot of political pundits and writers have called you the street fighter when it comes
07:03to UP.
07:05You were the first to try to reach Luckinpoot Prairie.
07:08I'm very happy to hear this because so far I was told they were calling me a tourist.
07:12So, I'm glad I'm now graduated from the district street fighter.
07:16In their minds, I think every woman is a street fighter at some level.