Priyanka Gandhi invokes Chanakya to target Amit Shah in Lok Sabha

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of using women’s reservation as a political ploy while undermining OBC rights and weakening democratic structures. She invoked Chanakya to highlight Amit Shah’s political manoeuvring and criticised Prime Minister Modi for projecting the BJP as the sole champion of women’s empowerment.

New Delhi: In friendly banter, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday told Home Minister Amit Shah that had Chankaya been alive today, he would have been startled by the BJP leader’s “political shrewdness”.

Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on three bills introduced for amendments to the women’s quota law and setting up a delimitation commission, Priyanka Gandhi accused the government of once again wanting to “dupe” people and launching a “big attack on the country’s integrity”.

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“On the one hand there is this big talk of women’s reservation, and on the other hand, the rights of OBCs are being taken away. A strong structure is being erected for the next polls by reducing the influence of small states, shredding democracy to pieces,” Priyanka Gandhi alleged.

“The home minister is laughing… He has made this full scheme. Had Chankaya been alive, he would have been startled by your political shrewdness (‘rajnaitik kutilta’). He (Shah) made the whole plan, and he is laughing now… He agrees with me,” the Wayanad MP said.

Hitting out at the government, she claimed the plan involved calling a sitting of Parliament during elections, not calling an all-party meeting, sharing the draft of the bill just a day before the sitting so that the opposition does not get a chance to deliberate on it, starting a discussion in media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to take a big step for women’s empowerment and put the opposition in a bind.

“Women’s reservation on one hand, and independence to change the structure and neglect the OBC section on the other. It is one thing to be shrewd in politics, and probably we should be a bit more shrewd on this side of the aisle, but it’s another thing to take the right decision in national interest, keeping aside the aspirations to remain in power,” Priyanka Gandhi said.

In her remarks, she also took a swipe at Prime Minister Modi, saying that from his remarks, it appeared as though the BJP is the sole champion of women’s reservation.

“Any woman will tell you that women can instantly spot men who repeatedly try to mislead them,” she said.

Giving a background to women’s reservation in legislative bodies, the Congress MP said, “When the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in 2023, the Congress extended its full support to it, in alignment with its core ideology. There should be no doubt whatsoever that the Congress stands firmly in favour of women’s reservation.”

Taking a dig at the government, she said the story began with a man named Nehru “but not the one you try to avoid”.

“Motilal Nehru Ji prepared a report in 1928, which he submitted to the Congress Working Committee. Motilal Nehru Ji was the chairman of a committee, and at that time, he prepared a list of 19 fundamental rights.

“In 1931, under the chairmanship of Sardar (Vallabhbhai) Patel Ji, the Karachi session was held, in which this resolution was passed. It was then that the issue of equal rights for women was included in India’s politics,” she said.

“At the same time, the principle of ‘One Vote, One Citizen, One Value’ was implemented in our politics,” Priyanka Gandhi said, adding that due to this principle, women got the right to vote from the very first day of Independence.

“In countries like America, women had to wait 150 years for this right,” she said.