Women’s Reservation Bill: How Sonia Gandhi, Smriti Irani, Mahua Moitra, other women MPs took charge in the LS today

Amid the discussion on Women Reservation Bill, the new parliament witnessed some of the most heated rebuttal and repartee in the session. Most of them were presented by the women parliamentarians, be it TMC's Mohua Moitra, NCP's Supriya Sule, or Ex-Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. From the ruling party, the onus was taken by the Union Minister Smriti Irani to give a befitting reply to the opposition. 

The discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill was passed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. The Women's Reservation Bill proposes 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures. However, the reservation will be implemented only after 2029 elections. She presented the demand for a separate quota for women from Other Backward Classes.

Afterwards, MP Nishikat Dubey presented the points on behalf of the ruling BJP government. The move was heavily criticised by the opposition. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury interrupted the speech Nishikant Dubey. However, he was trolled by Home Minister Amit Shah who asked, "men can't speak on women's issues?"

‘Is such behaviour with Indian women appropriate?,’ asks Sonia Gandhi

Speaking at the assembly, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi extended her support to the bill. However, she demanded that the quota be implemented immediately and provision be made for reservation for OBC women.

Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women.

"Rajiv Gandhi's dream is only half fulfilled. It will be fulfilled with the passage of this bill. The Congress supports this bill. We will be happy with the passage of this bill but we also have a concern. I want to ask a question. For the last 13 years, Indian women have been waiting for their political responsibilities, and now they are being asked to wait for a few more years -- two years, four years, six years, eight years," the former Congress chief said.

"It is the demand of the Indian National Congress that the bill be immediately implemented... but, along with that, provision should be made for the reservation of SC, ST, OBC women after conducting a caste census," she said.

‘Not the historic bill that is being touted as, it is a sham,’ strikes Mahua Moitra

Terming the women's reservation bill a “sham”, TMC MP Mahua Moitra said that the introduction of the bill with set limitations was a "placebo of legislatively-mandated procrastination".

"It is both my pride and my shame as I stand here in India's Parliament speaking on a women's reservation bill. It is my pride that I belong to the All India Trinamool Congress, a party that sent 37 per cent women among its members to Parliament, but it is my chagrin that I belong to a Lok Sabha that on aggregate has only 15 per cent of its people as women, far below the global average of 26.5 per cent and also below the Asian regional average of 21 per cent," she said.

"As this government pats itself on rankings in various global tables let it also hang its head in disgrace that the same India ranks 140 out of 196 in the Inter Parliamentary Union tables in women's reservations," Moitra said.

‘They say success has many fathers and failure has none,’ says Smriti Irani

Replying to the opposition, Union Minister Smriti Irani, on Wednesday, took a jibe at the Congress party and criticised everyone for taking credit for the bill.

"They say success has many fathers and failure has none. So when the bill came, some people called it 'our bill', some people said they wrote letters on it, and some said they set the entire constitutional framework," Smriti Irani said while participating in the debate on the Bill in the Lok Sabha.

She also targeted Sonia Gandhi for taking credit of the bill. She said, "When this bill was brought, some people said that it was 'our bill'. A respected leader (Sonia Gandhi) made her speech in the House, but I am especially thankful to her. We are repeatedly told that a special family got the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution passed, but I am thankful that this noble work was done by PV Narasimha Rao. After his (PV Narasimha Rao) death, no opportunity was given to pay obeisance to him (PV Narasimha Rao) at the party headquarters," Irani said.

She further said "Sonia Gandhi in an article on the proposed bill had said that "no seat shall be reserved for women for belonging to SC/ST in the third general elections.....But the bill brought by this government guarantees reservation to women till 15 years after the implementation of this bill."

She also retaliated to the COngress who called the Bill a ‘Jumla’ and said that those who called it Jumla, and said that it happened because they wrote several letters for it, at least they accepted that they kept insulting him (PM Modi).

"Today, those who called it Jumla and said that it happened because they wrote several letters for it, at least they accepted that they kept insulting him (PM Modi) but he read each of their communications and discussed it with them," Smriti Irani said.