Najma Heptulla

Najma Heptulla (2014)

Najma Heptulla ( Hindi : नजमा हेपतुल्ला , Urdu : نجمہ ہیپت الل; also Heptullah ; * April 13, 1940 in Bhopal ) is an Indian politician . She was a member of the Congress Party until 2004 , when she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). From May 2014 to July 2016 she was Minister for Minority Affairs in the Modi I cabinet . She has been the governor of the state of Manipur since August 2016 .

Life

Najma Heptulla was born on April 13, 1940 in Bhopal , now the capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. She comes from a Muslim family. She is a great niece of the Indian freedom fighter Abul Kalam Azad . Heptulla holds a Masters of Science degree in Zoology and a PhD in Cardiac Anatomy from the University of Colorado at Denver. She is married and has three daughters.

Heptulla began her political career in the Congress Party . She was their general secretary in 1986 and was entrusted with the youth activities of the All India Congress Committee and the NSUI. In 1980 Heptulla was first elected to the Rajya Sabha , the upper house of the Indian parliament. She was re-elected four times by 2010. She initially represented the state of Maharashtra , then from 2004 Rajasthan . Heptulla was deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha several times. From 1999 to 2002 she was Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Union . On September 7, 1999, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first session of the German Bundestag, she was the first guest speaker to address the German Bundestag .

In 2004, Najma Heptulla joined the Bharatiya Janata Party . As one of the few Muslim party members in the Hindu nationalist BJP, she soon rose to become the Muslim face of the BJP. In 2007, Heptulla was the BJP's candidate for the office of Vice President , but was defeated by Congress candidate Mohammad Hamid Ansari . After she left the Rajya Sabha in 2010, Heptulla was re-elected to represent Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha in 2012.

After the BJP won the 2014 parliamentary elections , Najma Heptulla was appointed Minister for Minority Affairs in Narendra Modi's cabinet . On her first day in office, she signaled that she would break with the policies of her predecessors in office by saying that the Ministry of Minority Affairs was "not the Ministry of Muslim Affairs"; in contrast to the Parsees , the Muslims would not qualify as a minority.

On July 12, 2016, Najma Heptulla resigned from her ministerial post. She gave “personal reasons” as motivation for her resignation. After leaving the government, she was appointed governor of Manipur state on August 17, 2016 .

Individual evidence

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Heptulla, Najma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Indian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 13, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bhopal

[1] Arab News, July 27, 2012: "Najma Heptullah: Checkered career in Indian politics".

[2] The Times of India, May 28, 2014: "Muslims are not minorities, Parsis are: Najma Heptullah".

[3] The Times of India, July 12, 2016: "Resigned due to personal reasons: Najma Heptulla" .

[4] The Hindu, August 17, 2016: "4 new Governors appointed; Najma Heptullah to serve in Manipur".