New Delhi: In his fourth ‘Chhatron ki goonj’ (echoes of students) programme, addressed primarily to women, Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi said in Pune that being a daughter, wife or mother cannot define a woman’s identity even as patriarchy demands it of her.Gandhi also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for expressing shock upon learning of female protesters using expletives at Jantar Mantar during the recent youth protests. “If boys use expletives, then no problem, they are allowed to do it. But if girls use expletives, it is a cultural shock, it does not befit them,” he told an audience at Pune’s AISSMS Ground on Saturday (August 22).Several women periodically joined Gandhi on the event’s stage, sharing their experiences of being belittled and condescended to while pursuing their careers, suffering sexual harassment in public, feeling unsafe using public transport and facing pressure to marry despite wishing to continue their studies.“Whenever I speak to a man,” Gandhi said at the beginning of his hour-long programme, “women are put in three boxes: you are either seen as a daughter, as a wife or as a mother.”While there is nothing wrong with being those things, “this cannot be your only identity”. “It cannot be that we have brilliant women who are doing completely fascinating and different things, who are professionals, who are sportswomen, who do multiple different things, and then the only identity that they are given, by our men, is these three,” the LoP said.Quoting the ancient Manusmriti as purportedly saying that women must not be independent, Gandhi called the extract a “shame”. “Because these words should never, ever have been spoken … You do not belong to anybody, except yourself,” he said. His remarks come against the background of his Congress party often stating that the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh follow the Manusmriti.Bhojpuri folk singer Neha Rathore, who is a critic of the BJP government and has been proceeded against by the Uttar Pradesh police, also appeared at the event, speaking about how online trolls attack women’s character and how she faced judgment in her capacity as a wife when she made critical videos.Next, Gandhi played an excerpt from Modi’s video on forgiving youth protesters, especially the young women among them, for using expletives including against him and his mother, before cueing videos of the PM making his ‘Rs 50 crore girlfriend’ and ‘didi o didi’ remarks.He also showed clips of Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat claiming in 2013 that ‘rapes happen in (urban) India but not in (rural) Bharat’ and of Union minister – and former Haryana chief minister – Manohar Lal Khattar implying in 2018 that most rapes are actually women who file cases against their male friends after a falling out.“If boys use expletives, then no problem, they are allowed to do it. But if girls use expletives, it is a cultural shock, it does not befit them. Bhagwat ji says rape happens in India but not in Bharat. Khattar ji says that 80% of rapes happen because of women. This is a mindset, and a struggle is taking place against it,” the MP for Rae Bareli said.“This mindset is that a girl has a place [to be put in], that she should be closed in a cage, she should be controlled, she should not work, and boys should have full freedom … We don’t want this kind of India,” said Gandhi.Calling on his audience to “smash the patriarchy”, Gandhi said his message was for women to “be loud, be proud, fight for your space in society”.His Chhatron ki goonj programmes began in June, shortly after the Cockroach Janta Party kicked off its protest against the NEET-UG paper leak and other issues at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, and have continued amid the agitation picking up steam and entering a new phase.