3 min readUpdated: Apr 17, 2026 04:43 PM IST
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi began his address to the House saying that his sister (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) managed to achieve a feat he couldn’t in 20 years. “She managed to make Amit Shah smile.”
Referring to Priyanka Gandhi’s address in the Parliament Thursday evening, Rahul Gandhi said, “Yesterday I was watching my sister achieve something in five minutes that I have not been able to do in maybe 20 years of my political career- which was to make Amit Shah smile.”
At the beginning of his address, the Lok Sabha erupted over his quip on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and him not having “wife issues”. Speaking during the debate on the delimitation and women’s reservation Bills, Gandhi said: “All of us have been influenced and taught by women in their lives… mothers, sisters, and wives… of course, the Prime Minister and myself don’t have the wife issue. So we don’t get that input.”
VIDEO | Parliament Session: Speaking in Lok Sabha during debate on Women’s Reservation Bill, LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi), says, “Women are a central force, a driving force in our national imagination, in our national perspective. All of us, every single one in… pic.twitter.com/ERHUoCh1HM
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 17, 2026
The reference to their bachelorhood elicited guffaws from the MPs present. He further said: “Yesterday, my sister achieved something that I have not been able to do in may be 20 years of our political career which was to make Amit Shahji smile.”
Rahul Gandhi slams Centre over women’s reservation Bill
Gandhi’s humour, however, quickly moved to a serious tone as he delved into the key debate. Gandhi targeted the BJP-led Centre over the women’s reservation and delimitation Bills, saying: “This is not a women’s bill; this has nothing to do with empowerment of women… This bill is an attempt to change country’s electoral map; using and hiding behind India’s women.”
He said the latest attempt to pass the women’s reservation Bill by tying it to the delimitation Bill is an “attempt to change the electoral map”. “Actually it is a shameful act,” Gandhi said.
‘Manuvaad over Samvidhaan’
Gandhi alleged that instead of bringing in a new women’s reservation bill, the government should bring back the original bill immediately (passed in 2023). “We will help pass it for implementation from this very moment… Now, what is being presented as the women’s bill is something else entirely, and the truth about it needs to be told. There is a central truth in India’s history, both past and present, that I have become increasingly aware of. That truth is the brutal, cruel, and unforgiving treatment of OBC communities, Dalits, minorities, and women. This is a historical fact and does not need to be debated,” he said.
He added, “It is a case of ‘Manuvaad over Samvidhan’.”
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Gandhi further said: “It is a historical fact that how Indian society treated Dalits and OBCs and their women…What is being attempted here is a bypass of the caste census. Here, they are trying to avoid giving power and representation to my OBC brothers and sisters and taking power from them.”
