March 8, 2016
Sugata Bose speaks on the occasion of International Women’s Day
I appeal to you Madam Speaker, that one way or another please ensure that women have just representation in the Lok Sabha in the future.
Sonia Gandhi ji has already paid tribute to the women who took part in the Gandhian Satyagrahas. Madam Teacher has already mentioned the Rani of Jhansi and the women, very often very poor women working in rubber plantations who fought in the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army.
I would simply add my tribute to women revolutionaries like Pritilata Waddedar of the Chittagong Armoury Raid and Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay, who went abroad and there, in the United States, she was the first to refuse to give up her seat in a train, long before Rosa Parks did the same thing on a bus.
So, these are the women whom we should remember and take as our inspiration and I wish to tell my women colleagues that because my name ends with an ‘A’, I often get letters addressed to ‘Ms Sugata Bose’ and I never object to that.
And especially on this 8th of March, I want to say that we will stand in solidarity with you and fight shoulder to shoulder with you to end gender discrimination in our country once and for all.
