"We are going to fight for the implementation of Women's Reservation bill," says Sonia Gandhi

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday asserted the INDIA alliance would fight for the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Bill passed recently by the Parliament.

Addressing the ruling DMK’s Women’s rights conference here, she said 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.”

She recalled the interventions made in the Parliament by opposition MPs on the actual implementation of the Bill, whether it would be in one year, two or three years. ”We have no idea,” she said and added though some men are happy, ”we are not, we women are not.”

She asserted ”we are going to fight,” for the implementation of Women’s Reservation Act.

The Women’s Reservation Bill introduced by the UPA-II was passed by the Rajya Sabha but a lack of consesus prevented it from being passed in the Lok Sabha.