Hyderabad, March 6 BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said on Friday that the younger generation should take an interest in politics instead of viewing it as a "dirty game".
Swaraj, who spoke at an event organized here by Telangana BJP's Mahila Morcha to celebrate International Women's Day, also said that Gen Z and millennials should take their predecessors and their future generations along with them.
"The 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam' (women's reservation bill) is coming. It will provide 33 per cent reservation for women in all political parties in the Parliament as well as state legislative assemblies. The youth here say that politics is a very dirty game. If it is, who is responsible for cleaning it up? This country is yours. You have to become the architects and creators of 'Viksit Bharat'," she said.
Urging women to take an interest in politics and current affairs, she said that the (present) 18th Lok Sabha should be the last one where women are under-represented.
Emphasizing that women have to create and implement policies, she said it is essential for women to participate in politics, including electoral politics, in order to become policy-makers.
She said that Gen Z and millennials should guide their previous generations into the present era.
Citing examples, she said that young people should help their mothers to make fixed deposits or to use apps on their phones for financial transactions like investments in mutual funds, which can be done without having to visit a bank. These things, along with others, are important to achieve the goal of 'Viksit Bharat' (Developed India), she said.
The BJP MP said that women should empower themselves by developing their skills, in addition to educating themselves, and by focusing on digital and financial literacy.
Swaraj, daughter of the late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, said that women empowerment and women-led development is not just political rhetoric under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing examples of schemes such as 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao', 'Mudra Yojana', 'Lakhpati Didi', and 'Namo Drone Didi' under the NDA government.