Delivering awards to young women entrepreneurs at a function organised by business chamber FICCI, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said there was a "crisis of credibility" for politicians in the country due to the perception that there was a vast difference in their "words and deeds".
Singh also said there was a general perception that politicians cannot be successful without telling lies.
"I work in political arena. I know that there is a crisis of credibility for politicians. There is a general perception that there is a vast difference in the words and deeds of politicians," he said.
The home minister said he represents Lucknow constituency in the Lok Sabha but during campaigning he never promised and only assured the electorate that he would "try" to do the work needed by them.
"Whatever may be the circumstances, knowingly, I will not tell any lie. I just tell people that if you bless me, I would try to do the work (they need)," he said.
Referring to the achievements of women in different fields, Singh said they have been successful in all walks of life and the government has been giving them encouragement.
"When I was the BJP president, I took a decision that women must have 33 per cent representations from national to village level in the party. The BJP was the first political party to amend its Constitution to this effect," he said.
Singh said that as the home minister, he advised the state governments to increase the representation of women in police forces to 33 per cent and has directed the paramilitary forces to do the same.
"Women in paramilitary forces are performing exceedingly well," he said.
PTI