AAP lawmaker Reshma Patel on Thursday called on the state government of Gujarat to implement a similar program for women in Gujarat, citing the newly announced government program of a Rs 1,000 monthly allowance for women in Madhya Pradesh. She made a subliminal reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s’revdi’ remarks in the lead-up to the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections last year, saying, “We are sad that while (AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal made a promise to give Rs 1,000 to women of Gujarat, the BJP leaders running the government insulted the rights of women by ridiculing it as’revdi’.”
The president of the women’s wing of Gujarat AAP has also written to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel demanding the allowance for the women. “Women of Madhya Pradesh getting Rs 1,000 is a matter of great joy for us… Now, we demand respect. We demand our rights. We demand that women of Gujarat be given Rs 1,000 which is their right,” she stated in her letter to the CM.
At a news conference in Rajkot, Reshma asserted that Gujarati women should be treated with the same respect as their counterparts in Madhya Pradesh.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, introduced the Ladli Behna Yojana, 2023 program this month, under which the BJP administration began providing married women who are at least 21 with a Rs 1,000 monthly allowance.
Reshma emphasized that the BJP presently rules both Gujarat and MP and claimed that if the Gujarat government does not provide Gujarat women with a Rs 1,000 monthly stipend, it will be perceived as unfairness and the party is discriminating against the women in the state. She threatened that the women’s branch of the AAP would start a fierce movement against the government if the Gujarat government did not comply with her demands.
