Development of education my top priority, says Atishi
An alumnus of Oxford and the key brain behind the education development in Delhi govt school, she is also the only woman candidate of AAP, from challenges to dream, from policy to politics, AAP east Delhi candidate Atishi talks exclusively to Sayantan Ghosh.
You have been the key brain behind the education development and now if you become an MP what are the national issues you want to work in?
I think that in India, state education development should be a priority for every government across India. I have the benefit to work directly at the ground in the Delhi government schools and I know the reality of the education system in India. I would like to work for issues related to education where I can ideate, share my inputs to form better systems.
Right now you are the only woman candidate from Delhi as other parties lists are yet to be out and the only one from AAP, as a woman representative what would be your focus?
As a woman representative from Delhi it means that a lot more responsibility because I think every woman representative from Delhi should raise the issue of law and order as a priority in the national level and in the state level. Even today MPs can intervene on a regular basis because MPs head the district monitoring committee of Police. The east Delhi MP has so far attained only one such meeting. I also think that in Parliament we should gather support across all the parties to clear the Women Reservation Bill because it is pending for decades. Women will only get a greater voice if there is this reservation in Parliament. Today marginalised groups of India like Dalits and Adivasis got larger voice to raise their issues at the national level due to the reserved seats in the parliament.
Despite good works in education, health and other sectors when the election agenda becomes an issue like full-statehood then how tough it becomes to reach out to people?
Every election is tough but it would be wrong to say that we do not talk about education and health developments. These all are our own work and we should talk about it. The full statehood is not a small issue and we talk about this today because we have worked in education and other sectors. Do you know that we cannot build any college or university without the Center's approval and as Center is not interested we could not build any new higher education institute. So what will happen if we give quality education in school?
None of the students will get admission for higher education. We have no reservation of seats for the Delhi students hence after getting 90 per cent marks also our students are denied admission. This is why the full statehood is needed. Not only education but also job, law and order and land are important sections which the full statehood can bring to us. The fight for full statehood is not about AAP but about Delhi.
Former CM and Delhi Congress Chief Sheila Dikshit's son Sandeep Dikshit earlier fought from this seat and won. Now there is also alliance talks all over, in this situation what is the mood in the ground of East Delhi?
Firstly there are no alliance talks as far as the AAP is concerned with Congress and we are fighting this election alone. Now, about Sandeep Dikshit, I think for some time he has maintained distance from Delhi Congress and recently he reportedly said that he is not eager to fight this election. Lastly, I would like to explain the East Delhi constituency. This section is a small Delhi itself, here you have some areas which are Dalit dominated, some areas which are Muslim dominated and also some areas where the majority is Punjabi people. At the same time in this area, there are many house societies where professionals stay so my work is to cover every section. The way we are campaigning at the slums and unauthorised colonies, we are doing the same at the societies.
