Responding to media queries on reports that the Union Cabinet has passed the Women’s Reservation Bill, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, ‘This is ours, Apna Hai’.
Sonia Gandhi referred to the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. The bill seeks to reserve 33 percent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
This Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 during the UPA government. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram welcomed the move, saying if the Union government introduced the women’s reservation bill on Tuesday, it would be a “victory for the Congress and its allies in the UPA government”.
“The BJP, in its 10th year, is reviving a bill that was buried at the stage where the clamor for the bill would die down,” Chidambaram said.
Discussions on the bill began after Minister of State Prahlad Singh Patel said on Monday that the government had approved the bill.
Minister of State Prahlad Singh Patel said, “The Modi government has the morale to fulfill the demand for women’s reservation as evidenced by the Cabinet’s approval. Congratulations to Narendra Modi and congratulations to the Modi government,” he posted on X, which was later deleted.
Commenting on this, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “We welcome the decision of the Union Cabinet report and are waiting for the details of the bill.”
“It could have been better discussed in the all-party meeting before the special session and consensus building instead of working in secrecy,” he remarked.
