From royalty to a tea vendor-turned-politician's wife and from a first lady to a Bengali actress, the 18 Muslim women who treaded the hallowed corridors of power in the Lok Sabha are an eclectic mix, with each of them having an interesting backstory, but one common thread -- their path to power was always strewn with struggle and hurdles.
After spending nearly 50 years in a colonial bungalow at 24, Akbar Road, the Congress moved into a new office on January 15. Rasheed Kidwai, who knows the history of the Congress better than the Congress, looks back at the people who breathed life into this address.
The radical raft of suggestions, which includes men not being allowed to take women's measurements and installing CCTV cameras, followed a meeting held on October 28.
'The great singer Shardaji took Bhojpuri music and singing to the national and international level with her singing!'
In her letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi three days ago, Kidwai said she was relinquishing charge as party general secretary and Mahila Congress chief as he felt that Rahul Gandhi should be given the necessary space to bring in younger leaders of his choice
Sonia stated that it was not surprising that people would back one of their own, said Tharoor.
The Bharatiya Janata Party hit out at the Congress over Patil's remarks and accused it of playing vote bank politics.
Patil has claimed the concept of jihad was not just in Islam but also in the Bhagavad Gita and in Christianity.
'We are not fighting against any individual, but the BJP's policies which are dictated by the RSS,' says Congress veteran Mohsina Kidwai.
"Perhaps the person who I think could possibly be the bomb planter may not turn out to be so. But one thing is sure, that the person looked suspicious and I can assure you that he was quite at sea at the bakery for he did not even know if waiters served there at the table or if it was a self-help joint," says Mohsina
'Kalnirnay is like a bible for any family.'
52-year old Rizwan alias Ahmed Khan was killed on the spot and his 45-year old wife Mohsina Begum suffered multiple fractures after the car knocked down their two-wheeler.
Gangs Of Wasseypur actress Huma Qureshi smoulders in an unbuttoned jacket on the magazine's September issue!
It is for the first time in the history of Independent India that not a single Muslim is part of the Union Cabinet.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday visited the residence of Arjun Singh to pay their last respect to the party veteran who died in New Delhi.
The Congress Working Committee and the All India Congress Committee secretariat were on Friday reconstituted by Sonia Gandhi, who dropped veterans like Arjun Singh and Mohsina Kidwai and G Venkatswami, who attacked her recently, and inducted new faces in the hierarchy.
The Jawahar Bhavan Trust has been reshuffled.
Former Union ministers Arjun Singh, M L Fotedar and Mohsina Kidwai have retired as trustees.
Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, has relinquished the post of secretary to the trust; he remains a trustee.
National Security Adviser M K Narayanan is being appointed Governor of West Bengal and former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will take over as the Governor of Punjab as the Centre has finalised a list of five new Governors in various states.
With political activity hotting up for the assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, where the Congress is currently in power, ticket aspirants are making a beeline for all the important addresses in the capital.
Dikshit was elected at a meeting of 42 party legislators in New Delhi on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting was attended among others by All India Congress Committee General Secretary Mohsina Kidwai, Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal and Delhi Pradesh Congres Committee chief Jai Prakash Aggarwal.
Authorities in Dhaka on Wednesday night ordered a massive evacuation in the coastlines with the Met office issuing "great danger signal" for southwestern Mongla and danger signal for south-eastern Chittagong and Cox's Bazar ports in view of the severe cyclonic storm created over Bay of Bengal.
Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi was given charge of youth affairs and the National Students Union of India, the Congress students body.
Observing that Delhi had become an 'unsafe' city for women, Sonawal said students from the north-east were especially vulnerable because of their distinct looks and inability to speak Hindi.
The party's economic wizard will be fielded from Andhra Pradesh.
After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi alleged the UP government has 'gone to war against its own people' and urged the NHRC to act decisively to protect the 'Constitutional rights of our citizens'.
Sonia Gandhi on Sunday hosted her first Iftar in three years, which saw the Congress president sharing a table with leaders of RJD and its new-found ally Janata Dal-United.
He has also convened the first meeting of the extended CWC on July 22 to chalk out the party's future strategy.
BJD MP Baijayant Jay Panda has written that 'reforms must reduce the Rajya Sabha's power to block the popular mandate'
Aditi Phadnis remembers the former prime minister on her 102nd birth anniversary.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has been spearheading the UPA's ambitious Food Security Bill, left the Lok Sabha while the voting was underway on Monday night on various amendments moved by the Opposition.
'Deeply flawed, Sacred Games and Mirzapur come nowhere close to representing the diversity of stories from this country,' says Vikram Johri.
Newly-appointed chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and state chief Raj Babbar came out all guns blazing against the SP, BSP and BJP.
No one else filed papers till Sunday, according to Mullapally Ramachandran, the chairman of the party's Central Election Authority.
Gandhi on Friday chaired his first CWC meeting after being elected as the party chief.
Rahul Gandhi attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh for its failure to act against Maoists responsible for killing many Congress leaders in May.
The Congress chief hit out at the BJP's ideological mentor, the RSS, alleging that it was a "male chauvinist organisation" and did not have women in it, thus cannot do what the Congress can for women.
A divided house until recently, Congress is putting up a spirited campaign to checkmate BJP in its erstwhile stronghold of Naxal-dominated Bastar region of Chhattisgarh where the ruling party hopes to cash on its developmental agenda coupled with Chief Minister Raman Singh's clean image in the Assembly elections.
Office space allotted to its functionaries at the Congress headquarters on 24 Akbar Road has, over the years, emerged as a reliable yardstick to measure a leader's standing in the party hierarchy, says Anita Katyal.
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