Meet India's youngest MP
The story of Agatha Sangma goes beyond her interesting name
IN A man's world, it's hard for minority tribal groups to hold on to matrilineal traditions. No one knows it better than Agatha K Sangma, 29, who won from her father's constituency of Tura, Meghalaya, not once but twice over the last year. The first win came in May 2008, when she stood in a by-election after her father Purno Agitok Sangma decided to give up the seat to join state politics. The second win in the 2009 General Election brought her a ministership in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet.
Three ethnic groups Khasis, Jaintias and Garos dominate this perennially cloud-kissed state. All follow the matrilineal system, where children take the mother's family name and daughters inherit ancestral property. This does not necessarily mean women are on top in this state, facing little or no social discrimination at all.
PA Sangma congratulating daughter Agatha after her victor
Ask any knowledgeable woman here, and she will tell you that Khasi, Jaintia or Garo women are not first class citizens, that they are often not the "boss of the house" and that their empowerment is a myth. "As voters, women outnumber men in Meghalaya, but they are political non-entities because they can neither become or elect village and tribal chiefs, where so-called democracy begins," says Patricia Mukhim, editor of The Shillong Times.
According to Mukhim, even the matrilineal privileges are misleading. Despite inheritance it's the right of the 'khatduh' or youngest daughter women cannot take property decisions without the sanction of male members in the family. And the responsibility of carrying on the family line usually means procreating and remaining within the domestic confines. It gets worse in the case of broken marriages; customs warrant that a woman bring up her children without maintenance from her ex-husband.
Agatha Sangma at the oath taking cermony
Little wonder then that Meghalaya took a tad over 35 years to elect its first woman member of Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament), when it first plumbed for Agatha K Sangma last May. Adversaries were quick to attribute Agatha K Sangma's overwhelming electoral victory last time she defeated her nearest rival and seasoned Congress candidate Zenith K Sangma by a margin of 99,855 votes to her father's political clout. This time, she campaigned largely without her father's assistance and still made it to the Lower House, although with a much reduced margin of 17,945 votes.
Her father, Purno Agitok Sangma, had won from the Tura parliamentary constituency consecutively for a record nine times before deciding to return to local politics. Tura, the headquarters of the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, is virtually the senior Sangma's fiefdom.
Purno Sangma, incidentally, was the Speaker of Lok Sabha (LS) and had led the crusade against the move to nominate Sonia Gandhi as India's prime minister owing to her 'foreign origin'.
"Just because she is my daughter does not mean she is incapable or cannot take independent decisions like contesting the election," says Purno Sangma of his MP daughter, who is named after his favourite writer of detective fiction, Agatha Christie. His other daughter, who is "apolitical" according to him, is named Christie.
Agatha asserts that plunging into politics was "quite natural", but she never quite banked on becoming a minister. It was Sharad Pawar, himself a proud father of Supriya Sule, an MP herself, who pushed for Agatha Sangma representing the NCP in the Manmohan Singh government as a junior minister.
"I am grateful to the people of Garo Hills for electing me as their representative in the LS," says Agatha, who joined the Delhi High Court as a lawyer after doing her LLB from Pune University. She did her MA in environmental management from Nottingham University in the UK. "Today's India needs the zeal of young politicians as much as the wisdom of elders," she adds.
But Agatha admits her electorate has entrusted a huge responsibility on her young shoulders. Other than being the "best regional ambassador to the nation beyond", her mandate includes improving the lot of women at home. "The matrilineal system notwithstanding, women in Meghalaya have to battle for their rights just like their counterparts in patrilineal societies," she says.
She plans to ensure proportionate representation of women in administration and the political arena there by allowing them to have more say in local and traditional bodies and work towards better and prompter justice for women suffering from violence and other atrocities matriarchy is no insurance against victimisation.
The need for Agatha and others of her ilk has never been felt more, what with more tribal males in Meghalaya demanding a switchover to patriarchy. Organisations such as the Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai (Male Liberation Group) feel matriarchy is alienating the state's tribesmen from the overwhelmingly patriarchal world. Besides, it is encouraging non-tribal people to marry tribal girls and gain access to their property.
The patriarchal values of majority cultures are in any case challenging matriarchy, points out social worker Hasina Kharbih. "Women in Meghalaya are increasingly victims of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence," she says.
Putting her degree in environmental management to good use, Agatha's agenda includes motivating the rural women to judiciously utilise forest resources besides checking deforestation a major cause of landslides in the hills and water harvesting. Despite being one of the world's highest rainfall areas, Meghalaya has acute drinking water problem owing to poor retention. Sure seems like the young MP and minister has much to deal with in the days ahead.
Varun Gandhi, youngest scion of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is behind bars
Varun Gandhi, the youngest member of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was behind bars after being arrested for inciting hatred against Muslims.
Varun Gandhi, the grandson of India's late prime minister Indira Gandhi, is facing criminal charges after making anti-Muslim comments
Varun Gandhi, 29, horrified most of his proudly secular family by making an inflammatory speech in which he allegedly swore to "cut off the hand" of any Muslim who dared to threaten a Hindu.He has spurned the family's Congress Party tradition to become a candidate for the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh state, and his arrest - after he surrendered to a court in a stage-managed event - will only heighten his profile among the BJP's supporters.Mr Gandhi can now portray himself to Hindu voters, the overwhelming majority of Indians, as a martyr willing to risk prison for their cause. "I am ready to go to jail for the nation," he told cheering supporters outside the police station where he will be held until tomorrow, when a magistrate will determine whether he should be formally charged with the offence.Mr Gandhi, the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, has repudiated the movement which gave his dynasty its place in India's halls of power. Instead he has found notoriety as a rabble-rousing politician pandering to mob instincts. During one campaign rally, he taunted Muslims over their tradition of circumcision, called a Muslim rival "Osama bin Laden" and swore that he would "cut off the hand" of any follower of Islam who dared to threaten a Hindu.India's Election Commission has already condemned his remarks and urged the BJP to drop him as a candidate. Speeches of the kind that Mr Gandhi, 28, delivered have sometimes been deliberate attempts to provoke bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims. In a country with a long history of communal hatred, it can take little more than a single act – leaving a pig's head outside a mosque or destroying a Hindu idol – to trigger sectarian riots.By dabbling in the world of rabid demagogues on the fringe of Hinduism, Mr Gandhi has created a bitter rift in the dynasty which has ruled India for most of its post-independence history.His cousin, Rahul, 39, and his sister Priyanaka, 37, have both denounced him in public. Priyanka accused him of spurning "what the Gandhis have lived and died for", while Rahul said he was blinded by "hatred and anger".Mr Gandhi and his estranged cousins are the grandchildren of Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 1984. Her two sons married women with very different personalities.Mr Gandhi's mother, Maneka, is headstrong, voluble, and strident. Rahul and Priyanka's mother is the Italian-born Roman Catholic, Sonia Gandhi, a more obedient and demure daughter-in-law.Maneka Gandhi became an animal rights activist - she lives with 22 stray dogs - while her son attended the British School in New Delhi and studied at the London School of Economics.Sonia Gandhi's loyalty to the family meant that she inherited its political legacy: the leadership of the Congress Party, of which she is president.Her children have enjoyed the power and privileges of India' s First Family. Rahul Gandhi, as the heir and crown prince, is being groomed as a future Congress prime minister.Meanwhile, Varun Gandhi has been left, by blood, with the most famous name in India, but none of the status, fame, or influence. "He was desperate to join the Congress and Sonia was fine with giving him a role in the party, but he wanted to take his mother along too and that was too much for Sonia," said a source who knows Mr Gandhi and describes him as "brash and full of himself".A hunger for recognition could explain his latest remarks. "He is trying to carve a niche for himself, so that he can catch up with his cousins," said Vinod Sharma, a political commentator.But the loathing between the Gandhi cousins is nothing compared with the bad blood between their respective mothers. Maneka and Sonia Gandhi cannot bear to be in the same room. They have avoided eye contact for the last 20 years.Mr Gandhi's behaviour could make this still worse. "He crossed the Rubicon with his offensive remarks. Varun is now at the furthest possible end of the political spectrum from Rahul and Priyanaka," said a source close to Sonia Gandhi.Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi have never denounced their cousin before, even when he committed the heresy five years ago of leaving Congress and joining the BJP. "I have never heard Rahul or Priyanka say anything against him. They thought he was a decent, intelligent fellow," said a close friend of Sonia. "That's why they are so stunned at his remarks. No true Gandhi would ever say such things."With his desperation to win Hindu votes by bashing Muslims, Mr Gandhi may have irreparably damaged his career.His remarks embody the gulf between the two main parties over the status of India's 133 million Muslims. While Congress denounces his speech for inciting hatred, the BJP has, so far, refused to disown him. "When pushed against the wall, the BJP reflexively reverts to Muslim-bashing. It just can't get away from its extremist Hindu agenda," said Inder Malhotra, the biographer of Indira Gandhi.The BJP leadership probably enjoys the spectacle of a member of the famously secular Gandhi dynasty abusing Muslims. In any event, the BJP blames Muslims for all acts of terrorism, accuses the Congress-led government of being "soft" on extremism and portrayed last year's terrorist attack in Mumbai as an example of the administration's weakness.With the BJP backing Mr Gandhi, the "Muslim question" dominates political debate once again. He claims that video footage of his speech has been tampered with. Some reports suggest that he might deliberately court arrest in order to appear the victim.Indian Muslims are furious. One group has asked the High Court to bar him from standing in hte elections.Meanwhile, the epithets pour in. From Hindu extremists, there is praise for a "hero" who has done them proud. From liberal India, there is condemnation of a "silly schoolboy".In a closely contested election between the Congress and the BJP, the war between the two branches of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty will be waged in every seat in the country.
Ask any knowledgeable woman here, and she will tell you that Khasi, Jaintia or Garo women are not first class citizens, that they are often not the "boss of the house" and that their empowerment is a myth. "As voters, women outnumber men in Meghalaya, but they are political non-entities because they can neither become or elect village and tribal chiefs, where so-called democracy begins," says Patricia Mukhim, editor of The Shillong Times. According to Mukhim, even the matrilineal privileges are misleading. Despite inheritance it's the right of the 'khatduh' or youngest daughter women cannot take property decisions without the sanction of male members in the family. And the responsibility of carrying on the family line usually means procreating and remaining within the domestic confines. It gets worse in the case of broken marriages; customs warrant that a woman bring up her children without maintenance from her ex-husband.
Little wonder then that Meghalaya took a tad over 35 years to elect its first woman member of Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament), when it first plumbed for Agatha K Sangma last May. Adversaries were quick to attribute Agatha K Sangma's overwhelming electoral victory last time she defeated her nearest rival and seasoned Congress candidate Zenith K Sangma by a margin of 99,855 votes to her father's political clout. This time, she campaigned largely without her father's assistance and still made it to the Lower House, although with a much reduced margin of 17,945 votes. Her father, Purno Agitok Sangma, had won from the Tura parliamentary constituency consecutively for a record nine times before deciding to return to local politics. Tura, the headquarters of the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, is virtually the senior Sangma's fiefdom. Purno Sangma, incidentally, was the Speaker of Lok Sabha (LS) and had led the crusade against the move to nominate Sonia Gandhi as India's prime minister owing to her 'foreign origin'. "Just because she is my daughter does not mean she is incapable or cannot take independent decisions like contesting the election," says Purno Sangma of his MP daughter, who is named after his favourite writer of detective fiction, Agatha Christie. His other daughter, who is "apolitical" according to him, is named Christie. Agatha asserts that plunging into politics was "quite natural", but she never quite banked on becoming a minister. It was Sharad Pawar, himself a proud father of Supriya Sule, an MP herself, who pushed for Agatha Sangma representing the NCP in the Manmohan Singh government as a junior minister. "I am grateful to the people of Garo Hills for electing me as their representative in the LS," says Agatha, who joined the Delhi High Court as a lawyer after doing her LLB from Pune University. She did her MA in environmental management from Nottingham University in the UK. "Today's India needs the zeal of young politicians as much as the wisdom of elders," she adds. But Agatha admits her electorate has entrusted a huge responsibility on her young shoulders. Other than being the "best regional ambassador to the nation beyond", her mandate includes improving the lot of women at home. "The matrilineal system notwithstanding, women in Meghalaya have to battle for their rights just like their counterparts in patrilineal societies," she says. She plans to ensure proportionate representation of women in administration and the political arena there by allowing them to have more say in local and traditional bodies and work towards better and prompter justice for women suffering from violence and other atrocities matriarchy is no insurance against victimisation. The need for Agatha and others of her ilk has never been felt more, what with more tribal males in Meghalaya demanding a switchover to patriarchy. Organisations such as the Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai (Male Liberation Group) feel matriarchy is alienating the state's tribesmen from the overwhelmingly patriarchal world. Besides, it is encouraging non-tribal people to marry tribal girls and gain access to their property. The patriarchal values of majority cultures are in any case challenging matriarchy, points out social worker Hasina Kharbih. "Women in Meghalaya are increasingly victims of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence," she says. Putting her degree in environmental management to good use, Agatha's agenda includes motivating the rural women to judiciously utilise forest resources besides checking deforestation a major cause of landslides in the hills and water harvesting. Despite being one of the world's highest rainfall areas, Meghalaya has acute drinking water problem owing to poor retention. Sure seems like the young MP and minister has much to deal with in the days ahead. | ||||||||
Varun Gandhi, youngest scion of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is behind bars
Varun Gandhi, the youngest member of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was behind bars after being arrested for inciting hatred against Muslims.
Varun Gandhi, the grandson of India's late prime minister Indira Gandhi, is facing criminal charges after making anti-Muslim comments
Varun Gandhi, 29, horrified most of his proudly secular family by making an inflammatory speech in which he allegedly swore to "cut off the hand" of any Muslim who dared to threaten a Hindu.
He has spurned the family's Congress Party tradition to become a candidate for the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh state, and his arrest - after he surrendered to a court in a stage-managed event - will only heighten his profile among the BJP's supporters.
Mr Gandhi can now portray himself to Hindu voters, the overwhelming majority of Indians, as a martyr willing to risk prison for their cause. "I am ready to go to jail for the nation," he told cheering supporters outside the police station where he will be held until tomorrow, when a magistrate will determine whether he should be formally charged with the offence.
Mr Gandhi, the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, has repudiated the movement which gave his dynasty its place in India's halls of power. Instead he has found notoriety as a rabble-rousing politician pandering to mob instincts. During one campaign rally, he taunted Muslims over their tradition of circumcision, called a Muslim rival "Osama bin Laden" and swore that he would "cut off the hand" of any follower of Islam who dared to threaten a Hindu.
India's Election Commission has already condemned his remarks and urged the BJP to drop him as a candidate. Speeches of the kind that Mr Gandhi, 28, delivered have sometimes been deliberate attempts to provoke bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims. In a country with a long history of communal hatred, it can take little more than a single act – leaving a pig's head outside a mosque or destroying a Hindu idol – to trigger sectarian riots.
By dabbling in the world of rabid demagogues on the fringe of Hinduism, Mr Gandhi has created a bitter rift in the dynasty which has ruled India for most of its post-independence history.
His cousin, Rahul, 39, and his sister Priyanaka, 37, have both denounced him in public. Priyanka accused him of spurning "what the Gandhis have lived and died for", while Rahul said he was blinded by "hatred and anger".
Mr Gandhi and his estranged cousins are the grandchildren of Indira Gandhi, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 1984. Her two sons married women with very different personalities.
Mr Gandhi's mother, Maneka, is headstrong, voluble, and strident. Rahul and Priyanka's mother is the Italian-born Roman Catholic, Sonia Gandhi, a more obedient and demure daughter-in-law.
Maneka Gandhi became an animal rights activist - she lives with 22 stray dogs - while her son attended the British School in New Delhi and studied at the London School of Economics.
Sonia Gandhi's loyalty to the family meant that she inherited its political legacy: the leadership of the Congress Party, of which she is president.
Her children have enjoyed the power and privileges of India' s First Family. Rahul Gandhi, as the heir and crown prince, is being groomed as a future Congress prime minister.
Meanwhile, Varun Gandhi has been left, by blood, with the most famous name in India, but none of the status, fame, or influence. "He was desperate to join the Congress and Sonia was fine with giving him a role in the party, but he wanted to take his mother along too and that was too much for Sonia," said a source who knows Mr Gandhi and describes him as "brash and full of himself".
A hunger for recognition could explain his latest remarks. "He is trying to carve a niche for himself, so that he can catch up with his cousins," said Vinod Sharma, a political commentator.
But the loathing between the Gandhi cousins is nothing compared with the bad blood between their respective mothers. Maneka and Sonia Gandhi cannot bear to be in the same room. They have avoided eye contact for the last 20 years.
Mr Gandhi's behaviour could make this still worse. "He crossed the Rubicon with his offensive remarks. Varun is now at the furthest possible end of the political spectrum from Rahul and Priyanaka," said a source close to Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi have never denounced their cousin before, even when he committed the heresy five years ago of leaving Congress and joining the BJP. "I have never heard Rahul or Priyanka say anything against him. They thought he was a decent, intelligent fellow," said a close friend of Sonia. "That's why they are so stunned at his remarks. No true Gandhi would ever say such things."
With his desperation to win Hindu votes by bashing Muslims, Mr Gandhi may have irreparably damaged his career.
His remarks embody the gulf between the two main parties over the status of India's 133 million Muslims. While Congress denounces his speech for inciting hatred, the BJP has, so far, refused to disown him. "When pushed against the wall, the BJP reflexively reverts to Muslim-bashing. It just can't get away from its extremist Hindu agenda," said Inder Malhotra, the biographer of Indira Gandhi.
The BJP leadership probably enjoys the spectacle of a member of the famously secular Gandhi dynasty abusing Muslims. In any event, the BJP blames Muslims for all acts of terrorism, accuses the Congress-led government of being "soft" on extremism and portrayed last year's terrorist attack in Mumbai as an example of the administration's weakness.
With the BJP backing Mr Gandhi, the "Muslim question" dominates political debate once again. He claims that video footage of his speech has been tampered with. Some reports suggest that he might deliberately court arrest in order to appear the victim.
Indian Muslims are furious. One group has asked the High Court to bar him from standing in hte elections.
Meanwhile, the epithets pour in. From Hindu extremists, there is praise for a "hero" who has done them proud. From liberal India, there is condemnation of a "silly schoolboy".
In a closely contested election between the Congress and the BJP, the war between the two branches of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty will be waged in every seat in the country.
