New Delhi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday stated that the three factors viz. education, employment, and entertainment, are required in rural areas to prevent people from fleeing to cities.
Naidu made an apparent dig at Pakistan during the opening of the National Stakeholders Conference on Localization of Sustainable Development Goals. "Of course, our neighbour is the next large country." However, there is no such thing as democracy. We have no idea what is going on there. I'm not sure if they are aware of that as well. I'm not going to say anything about it. But it's a fact: we're a democracy on all levels," he explained.
Naidu added that no other country in the world has as many democratic institutions at different levels as India, which has 2.78 lakh local bodies in rural areas. The vice president also slammed those who argue that granting equal rights to women and empowering them goes against Indian traditions. He also mentioned that all of the major rivers are named after females. "Women were also given important responsibilities at the time... Saraswati Devi was the Education Minister, Durga Devi was the Defense Minister, and Lakshmi Devi was the Finance Minister... Now we're hesitant to give power," he remarked. He believes that women should be represented fairly in Parliament and state legislatures.
The devolution of funding, functions, and officials through urban and rural local organisations, according to Naidu, was supposed to give people more power.
He added that political will and administrative abilities are essential to grant true power to local bodies, citing Mahatma Gandhi's remarks that "Ram Rajya" is incomplete without "gramme Rajya." For this reason, political will and administrative skills are required, not only a bill (legislation).
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