Sonia Gandhi declares support to women’s reservation bill
Hindustan TimesFormer Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanded that the women reservation bill must be implemented immediately while pitching for OBC quota within reserved seats as she declared her party’s support for the bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. In her first speech in the new Parliament, Gandhi hailed women power in India, saying: “Women in India never thought about her own profit and worked like a river to benefit everyone. She had made us intelligent and hard-working.” Gandhi recalled the contribution of Indian icons such as Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kriplani, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali and said: “Women worked shoulder to shoulder with men in the Independence war and for making a new India. Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kriplani, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali worked hard to to realize the vision of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad.” On Tuesday morning, Gandhi had dubbed the women reservation bill as “our bill.”, and on Wednesday, she recalled how former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi pushed the first bill for women quota in municipal bodies and panchayats.