this is a hopeful sign. i hope finally she replaces modi as cheif minister
and bring confidance in minority population
Aneesa Mirza: A woman of substance
Welcome relief to see a Muslim Woman becoming Mayor of the city which was in the center of Gujrat riots.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=43691834
NEW DELHI: She can rustle up a mean biryani, and in no time too. But that is when Aneesa Mirza is not busy taking over as India’s first Muslim woman mayor of a city that is yet to recover from the contretemps of a year ago.
Narendra Modi’s riot-ravaged Gujarat is in the news again. But this time more than one marginalised victim of brute chauvinism has reason to cheer – Muslims and women.
The voice on the phone is soft, a little weary but the politeness will not flag. It is Mirza’s umpteenth turn on the telephone and the others are ringing even as she speaks. But on her first day in office, the new Mayor is clearly not overawed. Not by the inevitable encounter with Chief Minister Narendra Modi sooner or later either.
In this brush with officialdom the Congresswoman is circumspect. “Modi has toned down considerably since what happened last year. In any case it doesn’t matter to me who I have to deal with. I am a God-fearing person.” She is glad though that her own party, the Congress, has abandoned the experiment with soft Hindutva that led to its catastrophic showing in the Assembly elections.
She is young at 51, and eager to begin. Her agenda is already chalked out. “My first task will be to establish communal harmony in Ahmedabad.” And, she says, her automatic appointment as ex-officio chairperson of the Ekta Samiti gives her an opportunity to do just that.
The Ekta Samiti is a group of senior citizens, leaders of all political parties and heads of religious institutions, which works for communal harmony in volatile Ahmedabad.
The mother of three will soon shift her family from their Raikhad residence to the Mayor’s bungalow in Law Garden. There she will set about doing exactly what she has done for the last so many years. Cook and build a warm home for her sons.
Mirza claims she has for long struck an ideal balance between home and work and this “very nice coordination” will continue.
“I am a good cook and a fast cook”, she declares. So what’s usually cooking? “Oh it all depends on my sons. What they like – biryani, other things.” Her sons, all three unmarried yet, make up Mirza’s world - Shujaat is a member of the Wakf board, Virasat is a freelance journalist and Rifaqat works with ITC.
There is a thick tone of satisfaction when Mirza says: “At this moment I feel all the sacrifices were worth it.” And sacrifices were aplenty for the young widow of physician Yusufali Khan Mirza, who brought up her sons on her own even as she pursued a career in politics.
She admits it was tough going being single in a world where even married women have to often stave off unwanted attention. “I have struggled but led a spotless political life. It was very difficult being a woman.”
Mirza was a last-minute entrant in the race for mayor. But she is no political novice, having served as corporator thrice since she was first elected in 1987.
The double post-graduate in English and History and Law graduate from Agra and Udaipur universities has also been a social worker for long. Her first important post, she feels, is well deserved, though she humbly thanks her party for giving her the opportunity.
Its a shame it took the slaughter of hundreds perhaps even thousand for her to get this position. Nevertheless I hope she can do something useful for the community.
She's a member of the Congress party. When elections came round last time, the BJP whipped up communal inter-religious frenzy and the Congress party got it's butt soundly whipped. It's difficult to see how things would be different next time round.
enough of masks puppets showboys and mir jaffers
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*Originally posted by kabir: *
enough of masks puppets showboys and mir jaffers
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humm...who is meer jafer here
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*Originally posted by allah_ka_banda: *
humm...who is meer jafer here
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WELL none here but there are plently of them around these days hamid karzia is one, farooq abdullah is one and the new chabila is one