An Open Appeal from Shakti to the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi13th December, 2018

To,Mr Rahul GandhiPresident, India National Comgress

Hello!

Congratulations on your electoral victories!

I am Tara Krishnaswamy, writing as co-convenor of Shakti, a non partisan women's collective that enables more women to be elected as MLAs and MPs. Numerous women from all walks of life including women in local bodies, grassroots groups, academicians, journalists, political commentators, aspiring politicians and others have joined hands on this initiative. Cutting across region, religion, caste, class, language and ideology, we have united to create an inclusive platform to further women's political careers.

On behalf of Shakti, I would like to convey our thanks for your recent letter to the Punjab, Karnataka & Puducherry state Chief Ministers, urging them to move resolutions to pass the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament. This is a very welcome move, and I hope your newly won states will follow suit shortly as well.

Shakti had made this very petition to the Congress Manifesto Commitee in their consultations in Delhi that were headed by the Mahila Congress President and Lok Sabha MP, Sushmita Dev. However, that is not all and our petition to the Congress party is also much more.

You must be aware that the tickets distribution record of the Congress party in all the recent state polls is abysmal.

This contradicts the party‘s stance of inclusiveness and this intra party reform is a prerequisite for political parity for women. Unfortunately, this is also true across parties.

While Governnment of India statistics show that women are superior electoral winners, political parties have been biased in accordingly due candidacy to women.

We are glad to note that have publicly stated your intentions that 50% of the population being women, political power must be proportionally shared. Unfortunately, these words will be construed as electioneering unless you prevail on what is under your stewardship.

Shakti asks that the Congress Party mandate 50% of tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections be distributed to women.

While this demand may seem tremendous, is is nothing but a long overdue proportional demand in a representative democracy. It is already 70 years late for women, and indeed India itself, as the stark injustice in party ticket distribution algorithms continue to prevail. The Congress party must ensure that tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are evenly distributed to women and men.

Shakti does undertstand, however, that when steps for reform are taken, they may not reach the optimal end state in one iteration. However, your unequivocal mandate to the party for increased tickets to women will swing the pendulum substantially. You can decide whether to right the intra party skew should be at the rate of 33% or 50%, but you must enable half the country the opportunity to represent itself.

Based on numerous studies from local bodies' performance over the past two and a half decaes, women led villages have outperformed the average in health, education, sanitation and other sectors. Further, more women are likely to approach their female Parliamentarians raising governance issues.

A UN study for ten years across 4000+ constituencies of India has unearthed that women MLA led constituencies, not just local bodies, have experienced higher economic growth by 15% points and helped raise the GDP of India by 1.8% more per year!

We repectfully demand that the Congress party enact reforms to accord 50% party tickets to women candidates. Such a mandate will not only build credibility in your promises, and truly empower Indian women, but simply transform governance in India.

Along with numerous women’s groups, women in local bodies, the Shakti team:

Ammu Joseph - NWMI, Independent Journalist, Dhanya Rajendran - Co-founder & Editor-In-Chief, The News Minute, Vidya Subrahmaniam, Sr Fellow, The Hindu Centre for Public PolicyNisha Agrawal, ex-CEO Oxfam India, Advisor Samruddha Bharat FoundationNisha Susan, Partner Grist Media/Ladies Finger Cynthia Stephen, Writer, independent Researcher and Journalist. Jyoti Raj, Co-founder CERIBhanupriya Rao, Founder genderandpolictics.org, Independent Researcher & Writer

Convened by: Rajeshree Nagarsekar, Pubisher of Evescape & Political ActivistTara Krishnaswamy, Co-founder Citizens For Bengaluru, Author & Activist

Thanking you!

Sincerely,Tara KrishnaswamyCo-convenor Shakti - Political Power To Women@politicalshakti