 "Poonam Aggarwal (third from right) President of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha Mandal along with other office bearers from the party.")
The scorching summer sun is blazing overhead in Ambala, but that hardly matters to Poonam Aggarwal.
“It is 46 degrees I know” she laughs as she adjusts her saree for a photograph. She says only Modi has delivered his promises made to the women voters.
“Women from villages used to defecate in the open earlier. They also used the chulha (open brick stove used for cooking) due to which they would have lung problems. Only my “big brother” thought about these women and the Muslim women whose husbands abandoned them after uttering talaq three times,” says President of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha Mandal.
Aggarwal is one of the thousands of women who attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden rally at the Police Line grounds in Ambala city on Saturday. The rally site could not accommodate the thousands who had turned up despite the heat to hear Modi speak.
The Indian meteorological department (IMD) issued an orange alert for a heat wave in Haryana, Punjab, east Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat on Saturday.
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Modi, who invoked Bharat Mata, Goddess Ambika and Goddess Manasa Devi at the beginning of his speech, endorsed the candidature of Banto Kataria from Ambala. Kataria is the widow of Ratan Lal Kataria, former minister of state and two-time member of Parliament from the Ambala constituency. Saturday was also Ratan Lal Kataria’s death anniversary.
“She has been given the ticket after years of political struggle and hard work; do you think this is a small thing for women? We, sisters of Banto Kataria, would like to assure her that we will all ensure her victory,” Aggarwal says as all the party workers around her nod in agreement.
In her short, seven-minute speech, Kataria invoked the legacy of her late husband and listed some of Modi’s achievements in the past ten years —including the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, abrogation of article 370 in Kashmir, and the women’s reservation bill among others.
Aruna Sudan, 38, who resides in the city says, “The women’s reservation bill will benefit women from Haryana because it’s a rural state and women don’t get to exercise their rights here.” She adds that the BJP government has used public money for all the right policies.
Aruna Sudan (left) and Bimla (right) attend the PM's rally in Ambala. (Photo: Samreen Wani)
Meanwhile, Lakshmi (only first name given), 48 and a resident of Jagadhari says she liked Kataria’s oratory style but was at the rally only to catch a glimpse of Modi.
Seated right next to her, 55-year-old Neelam, says “I have been with the BJP for the last 10 years because they don’t make false promises. They deliver exactly as they say.”
Baby, also 48 and a resident of Vishal Colony chimes in, “They opened the Ram Mandir and we Hindus can now visit that place. Congress has not done anything till today. There is another masjid at Vrindavan and Modi ji says he will campaign for it as well.”
She adds, “As a Hindu, he is fulfilling our wishes.” All the members of Baby’s family vote for the party.
Neelam (left) and Baby (right) outside the rally site at Ambala. (Photo: Samreen Wani)
Neelam, says that the government under Modi has provided them with LPG cylinders which has helped women like her.
She, meanwhile, has three sons who work in the unorganised sector. When asked how the family manages its finances given the unreliable source of income, she shrugs and says “Ho jaata hai (we manage somehow).” She says all she wants now is a pucca house under the PM Awas Yojana.
Crowd cheers at the PM's rally in Ambala City. (Photo: Samreen Wani)
At the rally, Modi said that he had delegated the responsibility of achieving a “drone revolution in agriculture” to women.
“I am providing the women in rural areas with drone pilot training and drones worth lakhs of rupees. The way the women of Haryana support the agriculture sector, the state will lead in the usage of drones in agriculture,” he said.
He also acknowledged the contribution of the “daughters” of Haryana in the field of sports.
Like Aggarwal, women from various BJP mandals, draped uniformly in saffron and green sarees pleated to perfection and with the lotus symbol prominent all over the fabric, cheered from their section from the right of the stage.
Despite a Master’s in English, Aggarwal only speaks in her “mother tongue.”
“Hindi was glorified only by Modi ji,” she says.
