Lack of consensus under UPA II stalled women's Bill, says Sonia

New Delhi, October 14

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday credited India’s early avocation of women’s rights to members of the Nehru-Gandhi family and said lack of consensus under the UPA II prevented the passage of the women’s reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha after the same was cleared by the Rajya Sabha.

“Now, the women’s reservation Bill has finally been passed due to our relentless persistence, all of us…and efforts. But all of us asked in Parliament when is the Bill now going to be implemented — in one, two or three years, we have no idea,” Sonia Gandhi said, adding that the opposition INDIA alliance would fight for early implementation of the Act. Accusing the BJP led Centre of “turning women into symbols to be counted and appreciated only in restricted, traditional roles in a patriarchal framework,” Sonia Gandhi traced the history of equal women’s rights in India to Motilal Nehru.

Addressing the women’s Rights Conference organised by Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin in Chennai to mark the 100th birth anniversary of late K Karunanidhi, Sonia Gandhi said, “The remarkable non-violent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi placed a strong emphasis on gender equality. In 1928, the Draft Constitution was being crafted under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru, and the Karachi Resolution of 1931 framed by Jawaharlal Nehru, both these documents championed women’s rights, advocating for equal voting rights…”