Hyderabad, March 10: Showering praises on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for getting the Women’s Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha, the Andhra Pradesh Mahila Congress on Wednesday demanded that she be awarded Bharat Ratna for her great service to the Indian women.
“We have faxed our demand to President Pratibha Patil already. We will meet her soon and request her to confer Bharat Ratna on madam Soniaji,” state Mahila Congress president K Ganga Bhavani said here.
She said a resolution has also been passed in this regard by the Congress women’s wing.
Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, wore a ‘Deepavali’ look today as the women leaders and activists distributed sweets, burst crackers, lighted sparklers and danced with joy over the passage of the women’s bill.
“The Indian women are indebted to Sonia Gandhi. She will live in their hearts forever,” the women leaders said.
They hit out at RJD Chief Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and Janata Dal (U) president Sharad Yadav for opposing the women’s bill.
“The behaviour of MPs who tried to snatch away and tear the papers was abominable. If Lalu Prasad had so much love for Dalits, then why did he make his wife as Chief Minister. He could have made a Dalit leader as Chief Minister,” T Venkata Ratnam, a woman Congress leader, said.
—Agencies