Beyond Party Lines, former Manipur Governor and veteran politician Najma Heptulla shared a poignant memory from her time in politics, recounting an experience where she waited for an entire hour to speak to then-Congress President Sonia Gandhi—but was ultimately left disappointed.
The incident occurred in 1999, when Heptulla, after being elected to lead the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), called both Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi to inform them of her election. Describing her appointment as the first Indian Muslim woman to lead the international body, Heptulla called the event a “historic first and a great honour.”
While Prime Minister Vajpayee immediately took her call and expressed his delight, Heptulla faced an entirely different experience when trying to contact Sonia Gandhi. A member of Gandhi’s staff informed Heptulla that the Congress leader was “busy” and asked her to wait. Despite being informed that her call was an international one from Berlin, Heptulla was kept waiting on the line for one full hour. To her disappointment, Sonia Gandhi never took the call.
In her autobiography, Heptulla described her frustration with the lack of response, recalling how, after waiting for an hour, she received no further communication. “I was truly disappointed,” Heptulla wrote, adding that she chose not to inform Gandhi about her election after the incident.
In contrast, Heptulla noted that after her election to the IPU, it was BJP leader Vasundhara Raje who invited her and other members of Parliament to celebrate the achievement in the Parliament Annex.
Reflecting on her time in the Congress party, Heptulla also mentioned how, after Sonia Gandhi assumed the party’s leadership in 1998, a significant number of intermediaries began to emerge between the Congress president and the party rank and file, which she described as a shift in the party dynamics.
Heptulla’s autobiography offers a candid insight into her political journey, her experiences within both Congress and BJP, and her perspectives on leadership within India’s major political parties.
Sources By Agencies
