Maneka Gandhi

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Maneka Gandhi (2014)

Maneka Gandhi ( Hindi मेनका गांधी , born August 6, 1956 in New Delhi ) is an Indian politician, multiple minister, environmental, animal and women's rights activist, writer and a member of the Nehru Gandhi family .

biography

Early years

Maneka Gandhi was born as Maneka Anand as the daughter of Tarlochan Singh Anand and his wife Amteshwar Anand in Delhi. She comes from a Sikh family. Her father was an officer in the Indian Army . In Delhi she attended the Lawrence School and then the Lady Shri Ram College where she won a beauty contest as Miss Shri Ram College in 1973 . From 1974 she attended Jawaharlal Nehru University , where she took courses in German. There she met Sanjay Gandhi , the younger son of incumbent Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , at a party . The two married on September 23, 1974, shortly after their 18th birthday. A few months later, on June 25, 1975, at the instigation of the Prime Minister, a state of emergency was declared in India. Sanjay Gandhi had his hands full during this time, as he was his mother's closest confidante and in this way gained great influence on her politics. His wife Maneka supported him in his activities and finished university education. After the state of emergency was lifted, new elections were held in 1977 , in which Indira Gandhi and her congress party suffered a severe defeat and lost her office as prime minister. The newly elected government of the Janata Party began to take legal action against Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi in order to deal with the violations of the law during the time of the state of emergency. Maneka Gandhi was also partially affected. Her passport was initially confiscated, but she was able to successfully defend herself against it in a highly regarded process. Fortunately for Indira and Sanjay Gandhi, the new Janata Party government was soon hopelessly divided and disorganized, so that early elections were held as early as 1980 , which Indira Gandhi won triumphantly. Sanjay Gandhi also won a constituency mandate for the first time and, with the support of his mother, would certainly have performed an important political function. The public was convinced that his mother wanted to make him her successor. However, Sanjay was killed on June 23, 1980 in Delhi when an airplane he was piloting crashed. Just over 3 months earlier, their first and only son, Varun Gandhi , had been born. Maneka Gandhi had thus become a widow at the age of 23.

Since the 1980s

After Sanjay's death, Maneka gradually fell out with her mother-in-law, had to leave their home and founded her own political party, Rashtriya Sanjay Manch . However, the party could not achieve any major successes. Maneka Gandhi ran in the parliamentary elections in 1984 in the constituency of Amethi ( Uttar Pradesh ), in which Rajiv Gandhi , Indira Gandhi's eldest son and top candidate of the Congress Party, ran and was defeated by a massive 50,000 votes (12%) against 365,000 (84%).

In 1988 she joined the newly formed Janata Dal and became general secretary of the party. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 1989 election in constituency 13-Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and held various government posts in the subsequent legislative period (1989-1991 Minister for Environment and Forests, January-April 1990 Minister for Planning Program Implementation). In the 1991 election she lost the constituency again, but was able to regain it in 1996 and maintain it in all elections that have followed since then.

In August 1996 she came into conflict with the ruling Prime Minister Deve Gowda (Janata Dal). It was about the construction of a 1000 MW coal-fired power plant from the Cogentrix company in a relatively untouched nature area in the Western Ghats in Karnataka , Gowda's home state. Local people and environmentalists had opposed this construction and the relaxation of the originally intended environmental regulations for years. Maneka Gandhi was one of them and was therefore expelled from her party, the Janata Dal, in September 1996. In the following two elections in 1998 and 1999 she ran as an independent in constituency 13-Pilibhit and was supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In return, she supported the formation of a BJP-led government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after the 1998 election as a member of parliament . In the two governments of Vajpayee 1998–1999 and 1999–2004, she held various ministerial posts (Minister for Social Justice and Development 1998–2001, Minister of Culture, also responsible for animal welfare 2001, program implementation and statistics, also responsible for animal welfare 2001–2002).

Shortly before the 2004 general election , Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun joined the BJP on February 16, 2004. As a justification, she said that the BJP is under good leadership ( “mature leadership” ), which enables people with strength and a vision to blossom and flourish ( “... allowed people of strength and vision to blossom and grow " ).

After 10 years in the opposition, the BJP came back to power after the 2014 parliamentary election and Maneka Gandhi became Minister for Child and Women's Development in Prime Minister Modi's first cabinet .

Commitment as a social activist, in environmental and animal protection and for women's rights

Since the 1980s, Maneka Gandhi has increasingly focused on development, women's rights and environmental issues. She was also involved as a supporter of animal rights and became known beyond India through her repeated appearances at international congresses. Among other things, she is the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Energy Globe Award .

As a minister, she has initiated several state programs that are dedicated to improving the situation of women and girls in India, including in 2014 "Help the daughters, raise the daughters" ( Hindi बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ , Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao ), a program that aims to correct the generally poorer chances of girls who are reflected in the still very unequal gender distribution in India.

She was also involved in animal welfare and advocated increased penalties for animal cruelty. She refused to kill stray dogs and instead asked for them to be sterilized. and got into an argument with Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar over the killing of wild animals in 2014 . As an animal and environmental activist and convinced vegetarian , she took the view that people who on the one hand advocate peace in the world and for environmental protection, and on the other hand eat meat, are either “superficial hypocrites” or “too stupid to see the connections ". One cannot have peace and environmental protection and at the same time continue the "torture and violence against fellow beings" ( "perpetrate torture and violence against fellow beings" ). Eating meat contributes to an "ongoing cycle of misery".

Maneka Gandhi has received several national and international awards for her commitment.

Web links

Commons : Maneka Gandhi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Meet The Minister. Indian Ministry of Women's and Child Development, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Maneka Gandhi vs Union Of India on January 25, 1978. Supreme Court of India, January 25, 1978, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Rashtriya Sanjay Manch: Maneka's melange. indiatoday.com, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  4. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Stephen David: Generating heat. August 15, 2016, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  6. ^ Constituency Profile / Pilibhit: Maneka Gandhi striving to re-enter LS from Pilibhit. rediff.com, February 9, 1998, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  7. ^ Maneka, five MPs write to President supporting BJP. rediff.com, March 6, 1998, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Maneka, Varun join BJP. The Hindu, February 17, 2004, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Javed M. Ansari: Display of maturity. indiatoday.in, May 15, 1996, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana. Retrieved November 25, 2016 .
  11. ↑ The Maneka Gandhi column: Animal cruelty is a top-tier federal crime in the US, what's stopping us from following suit? firstpost.com, March 22, 2016, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Maneka Gandhi advocates ban on killing of dogs. The Hindu, May 1, 2007, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Maneka slams Javadekar over culling of animals. The Hindu, June 9, 2016, accessed November 25, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Interview: Maneka Gandhi. The Scavenger, November 21, 2009, accessed November 25, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Gandhi, Maneka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES मेनका गांधी
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Delhi , India