MISSING FROM THE HOUSE
Ever since the first general elections, out of the 690 women MPs who have been elected to Parliament, only 18 have been Muslim women MPs. That itself is a staggering comment by itself. And it’s a story that authors Rasheed Kidwai and Ambar Kumar Ghosh narrate in their very aptly named book, Missing From the House: Muslim Women MPs (Juggernaut) in the Lok Sabha.
As Shashi Tharoor writes in the foreword, this book is a “call to action, beckoning us to do better as we gear up to implement the Women’s Reservation Act.”
The authors have profiled all 18 of these trailblazing women, from Mofida Ahmed, Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah, Noor Bano and Mehbooba Mufti to Iqra Hassan. As the authors point out in the book, their active participation in Parliament has been exemplary. They have participated in Lok Sabha debates, raised questions on diverse policy issues, and none of the 18 had any major allegations of corruption, criminal charges or hate speech.
But at the same time, they have been battling what the authors very evocatively refer to as “Double Jeopardy.” It is indeed a book for scholars, historians and political watchers.
OF SLEEPER CELLS
What is Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Tariq Hameed Karra’s game plan? An export from the PDP, instead of uniting the party, he has been accused of deepening the divide that already existed within the Pradesh Congress.
What makes this story all the more interesting is that he has apparently become quite blatant in dodging summons by the party high command. Recently, the J&K in-charge, Syeed Naseer—who was asked by AICC general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal to bring the warring factions together—summoned Karra and the others to a meeting in Delhi last fortnight. But Karra did a no-show, though all the others including AICC general secretary and West Bengal in-charge G.A. Mir, CWC member and former PCC president Vikar Rasool showed up.
Karra’s excuse was that he was unwell, having suffered a heatstroke. However, his detractors were quick to point out that he had mostly been busy participating in a relay hunger strike in the Jammu region districts, which was held inside the PCC office, with limited exposure to the sun.
This was not the first time Karra had given a slip to the party leadership. Earlier too, after participating at a dharna at Jantar Mantar after the August 5th anniversary on the revocation of Article 370, he dodged the press conference that had been planned at the AICC headquarters and refused to take Naseer’s calls. Later he claimed that he had a severe chest congestion as he’d got drenched in the rain during the dharna. It is another matter that the stage was fully covered.
These schoolboy shenanigans aside, what has irked the party leadership is that he had been asked by Rahul Gandhi to focus more on Kashmir, where the party is weaker than in Jammu. However, Karra’s focus has remained Jammu, and his team mostly consists of those who have come from PDP, his old party. Hence the joke within the party unit is that earlier Rahul had feared there was a BJP sleeper cell within the Congress, but in Jammu it’s more of a PDP sleeper cell.
BIHAR KE LADKE
The bonhomie between Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav during the Voter Adhikar Yatra has its own visual impact. For now, the trio have clearly decided to let their individual ambitions aside for the common goal of taking on the BJP—and the NDA. Moreover, the allegations of voter chori is an issue that impacts every state, not just Bihar.
Beyond that, Akhilesh has little stake in Bihar, for the Samajwadi Party as an organisation is non-existent there, but he made it a point to join the yatra on its last leg to show solidarity for a greater cause.
He also has an interesting equation with Tejashwi’s estranged brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, who is in the habit of video-calling Akhilesh now and again. For instance, on one occasion when he visited a temple in Varanasi, he called Akhilesh so the latter could also take a darshan via video. Recently, when Akhilesh did not pick up a few of his calls, Tej Pratap even complained about it to a podcast host.
Akhilesh then made it a point to call him, and that call went viral, setting off speculation as to why the SP leader was reaching out to the estranged Yadav sibling. He says he was just returning a missed call. Or is there more to this phone politics?
