"I reaffirm the government's commitment to work steadfastly for the social, political and economic empowerment of women. This is also a commitment of the UPA coalition endorsed through CMP. We are working hard to build consensus and some months ago nearly succeeded, but some problems came up. I remain committed working towards building broadbased consensus on the issue and bringing the bill as soon as possible," this suo moto statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha floored even his bitterest critics.

The UPA government had been under tremendous pressure for not even listing the Women's Reservation Bill during the current session of Parliament.

In fact, Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not even mention a word about this in her speech to the Congress Parliamentary Party.

Replying to the debate on the President's address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, Dr Singh said that "our primary concern is to remove poverty."

In the three years that his government has been in office, they have been able to set up a growth process.

"We have a growth rate of 8.2 per cent and this year, we hope to have 9 per cent," Dr Singh said.

The growth process should reach all sections of the society, including farmers and women, Dr Singh said.

Dr Singh said he was happy to listen to speakers who, cutting across party lines, spoke about growth benefits reaching all sections of society.