Rahul Gandhi on Friday said no country can truly succeed if its women are unable to express themselves, asserting that India would remain "stunted" unless women are free to speak, question and participate equally in all spheres of life.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha made the remarks in an Instagram video, describing it as an extension of his response during Thursday's "Ask Me Anything" session, where he had answered a question about young women fighting for their right to education.
"I was thinking to myself that the energy of India's women is trapped, is not allowed to express itself, is not allowed to imagine.
"To me, no country can be successful if the women in that country are not expressing themselves. I think a lot of my politics and a lot of what politics should be in this country is in making people understand that our country is stunted, incomplete, without the expression of our women," Gandhi said.
He argued that women's empowerment goes beyond representation in politics or business and must include the freedom to express themselves at home and in public without fear.
"That is not just women doing well in business or in the political system. That is them being able to express themselves in their homes, that is them being able to walk the streets comfortably.
"That is them putting a point of view that many others don't agree with, that is them questioning their parents, their husbands, their brothers, sisters, whatever. So a certain amount of freedom from this patriarchy, from the rigid control that India's men impose on their women, is required if India has to really develop," the former Congress president said.
Calling women's freedom central to his political philosophy, Gandhi said greater efforts were needed to ensure women had an equal voice in society.
"This is something I really believe strongly in. It is embedded in the political philosophy that I subscribe to. It has been assaulted, put in the back seat, pushed back, challenged.
"One of the things we absolutely have to do is to reinvigorate it, bring women back into the conversation where they should be and allow them to express themselves and do what they want to do," Gandhi said.
During Thursday's interactive session, Gandhi had described women as "India's women are our strength, our biggest asset" and expressed concern over the way they are treated in the country, including in the education and corporate sectors.
"Women deserve equal space in every sphere of life. In fact, I believe they deserve more than equal space in every sphere of life," he had said.
(With inputs from PTI)