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What Priyanka Gandhi ‘achieved in 5 minutes’ versus Rahul's 20 years, he explains
Amit Shah's smile that Rahul Gandhi was referring to came on Thursday when Priyanka Gandhi, in banter with the minister, took a jibe at him.
"Everyone in this room has been influenced, taught, learnt a lot from women in their lives," Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition, said in the Lok Sabha on Friday, as he praised his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in particular.
“Yesterday I was watching my sister (Priyanka, who spoke in Lok Sabha on Thursday) achieve something in five minutes that I have not been able to in, maybe, 20 years of our political career, which was to make (home minister) Amit Shah ji smile,” he said. Both Priyanka Gandhi and Amit Shah were not present, but it led to laughter across party lines. Priyanka came in later.
He said he would also want to learn that from her.
“I was feeling very proud as her older brother,” he added, as he also went on to recount a story from their grandmother, the late Indira Gandhi, about overcoming fears.
Amit Shah's smile that Rahul Gandhi was referring to came when Priyanka Gandhi, in light-hearted banter with the minister, took a jibe at him, saying even the fabled political analyst Chanakya would be "shocked" by Shah and the BJP's “political scheming”.
What Priyanka said
Speaking during the ongoing special session of Lok Sabha to discuss the three three bills that seek to increase the seats from the existing 543 to a maximum of 850 (816, for now, as per Shah) to give one-third women representation.
Priyanka said that the bills are a means for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to retain power.
“The current government is once again trying to deceive the nation, launching a major attack on the country’s integrity. On one hand, it speaks at length about women’s empowerment, while on the other, it is quietly taking away the rights of OBCs and weakening some states. By undermining India's democracy, it is building a framework to strengthen its party ahead of the next elections,” Priyanka said when she caught Amit Shah smiling across the aisle.
When she jibed Shah
Breaking into her trademark smile herself, she said, “The home minister is laughing. Their entire plan is ready," and further remarked, “If Chanakya was alive, he would be shocked by your political scheming." The House burst into a chuckle.
The Congress has said the BJP wants to use the women's quota rule amendment as a smokescreen to carry out gerrymandering, meaning a change in Lok Sabha's map for political benefits. It has said it supports women's quota delinked from the delimitation move.
Shah, speaking after Priyanka, sought to assure that the increase in Lok Sabha would not lead to discrimination against any state.
He provided details of the number of seats that will be increased for southern states — promising a flat 50% hike. Thus, he said, the representation of all these states will remain similar to their current proportions even after the seats are increased.
The Congress has pointed out that the bills do not say any such thing.
The original 2023 women's quota bill was to come into effect after the latest census, but the bills now would provide the government powers to use any census. Population-based increase, now or later, would mean North India gets even more seats while the South, which has been successful in the national policy of family planning, would end up with a lower share.
