I.N.D.I.A. bloc for enforcing Women’s Quota Bill soon

 

 

 

CONGRESS leader Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the Opposition INDIA alliance’s goal is early implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill recently passed by the Parliament and asserted the bloc would fight for it. Reiterating his unity pitch to dislodge the BJP regime at the Centre, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin accused BJP of “conspiracy” while batting for internal reservation for OBCs and minorities in the reservation for women in legislative bodies. “The INDIA bloc is not merely an electoral alliance but an ideological alliance,” he said at the Women’s Rights Conference organised by the ruling DMK here on Saturday. The event saw the participation of key women INDIA leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mehbooba Mufti and Supriya Sule. Stalin said the BJP can be defeated only through unity and Tamil Nadu has shown the way since the 2019 LS election. “A united alliance, like the one in Tamil Nadu, should be formed in every state across India.”

 

Hitting out at the Centre, Sonia Gandhi said the last nine years has seen a sustained effort on the part of the Narendra Modi Government to “turn our women purely into symbols to be counted and appreciated only in their restricted, traditional role in a patriarchal framework.” Her husband, the late Rajiv Gandhi brought the historic 33 per cent reservation for women in Panchayati raj, the local self-governments which spurred an entirely new phenomenon of women leadership at the grassroots level.

 

It was a vital stepping stone towards the reservation on a similar one thirds of seats in the legislative bodies which the Congress pioneered in Parliament and outside. Now, the Women’s Reservation Bill has finally been passed due to “our relentless persistence and efforts; of all of us, not just the Congress.” However, “as we all know, it is still a long way to come.” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi demanded the immediate implementation of the Women’s reservation saying women have “no more time to waste.