Sonia on the Women’s Reservation Bill: “It is ours”

Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), said on Tuesday that “it is ours” after the Union Cabinet approved the long-awaited Women’s Reservation Bill.

Tuesday morning, after arriving in Parliament, Sonia Gandhi responded vehemently.

When asked whether the Women’s Reservation Bill will be introduced in Parliament once again, she said, “It is ours, apna hai.”

Her comments came a day after the Union Cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Constitution Amendment measure, opening the way for the historic measure’s presentation during the current extraordinary session of Parliament. The law would have given women a seat in Parliament and state legislatures.

The Congress, the party’s highest decision-making body, recently finished a two-day meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), and in its resolution asked that the Women’s Reservation Bill be passed during the Parliament Special Session.

The approval of the Bill in the Special Session was urged on Monday by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress and leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The H.D. Deve Gowda administration introduced the bill to reserve 33% of seats for women for the first time in 1996.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment Bill), formally known as the legislation by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) administration, was then reintroduced in 2008.

The law was approved by the Rajya Sabha in 2010, but the Lok Sabha was unable to approve it, and it expired when that body was dissolved in 2014.