New Delhi: Faced with accusations of having stonewalled legislative business of the government, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday challenged the NDA to get the Women Reservation Bill passed.
After women MPs cutting across party lines threw their weight behind Mrs Gandhi’s demand, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Venkaih Naidu said that the government is working to build a consensus on the issue.
Taking part during a discussion on the Women’s Day, Mrs Gandhi said, “give us women our legitimate due” by passing the Women Reservation Bill.
She also took on a few of the BJP-ruled state governments for having made educational qualifications mandatory for contesting local polls and thereby denying women their right to contest. She said that it was Congress which gave the country the first woman Prime Minister in late Indira Gandhi.
Mr Naidu while replying to the discussion, said the government is working towards evolving consensus. He, however, when pressed by an Opposition MP for a timeline retorted “they (Congress government) could not evolve consensus in 10 years”.
