Playing the women card

The Congress is spreading on social media an appeal made by a woman lawmaker of the party urging the Centre to exempt sanitary napkins from the goods and services tax (GST). Congress lawmaker from Assam, Sushmita Dev, daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev, has written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that taxing the personal hygiene article at 14 per cent under GST would be a move against millions of women in the country. Party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, too, has highlighted the issue while trying to reach out to half of India’s electorate. The online campaign is aimed at mobilising the youth.