Madam is busy… kept waiting for 1 hour, when Sonia Gandhi did not talk to former Rajya Sabha Speaker Najma Heptulla

New Delhi : Former Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Heptulla has mentioned an incident related to Sonia Gandhi in her recently released autobiography ‘In Pursuit of Democracy: Beyond Party Lines’. After alleged differences with Sonia Gandhi, Najma left Congress and joined BJP in 2004. Najma has written in her autobiography that I was elected President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in the year 1999. After this, I called the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi from Berlin to give this news, but an employee put her call on ‘hold’ for an hour saying ‘Madam is busy.’

Sonia did not talk

Heptulla wrote that, however, when he/she called the then Congress President and his/her leader Sonia Gandhi, one of her staffers said that ‘Madam is busy.’ When she (Heptulla) said that she was calling from Berlin i.e. abroad, the employee said, ‘Please stay on the line.’ I waited for an hour, but Sonia (Gandhi) did not talk to me. Heptulla said he/she was very disappointed.

Former Manipur Governor Heptulla wrote that I did not say anything to her after that call. Before putting my name forward for the post of IPU President, I had taken permission from him/her and at that time he/she had also wished me all the best.

Atal Bihari was also called

Heptulla said that becoming the President of IPU was ‘a historic moment and a great honor for me, which was the pinnacle of my journey from the Indian Parliament to the global parliamentary platform.’ The autobiography states that the first thing he/she did was to call the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Berlin, who immediately spoke to him/her.

Heptulla wrote that he/she was very happy when he/she heard this news, firstly because it was an honor for India and secondly because this honor had gone to an Indian Muslim woman. he/she said you come back, we will celebrate.

Heptulla became a minister in Modi government

Heptulla was made the Minister of Minority Affairs in the Narendra Modi government at the Center in 2014. he/she said that after becoming the IPU President, the Vajpayee government had increased the status of his/her post from Minister of State to that of Cabinet Minister. The book published by Rupa Publications states that Atalji had allocated Rs 1 crore in the budget for the IPU President’s visit to countries, which was not paid for by the IPU Council. Vasundhara Raje had invited me and other MPs to celebrate my election as IPU President.

Heptulla wrote, “The following year, when I invited Sonia Gandhi to attend the Presiding Officers’ Conference in New York, she declined at the last moment.” Apart from his/her political career, Heptulla has published several books. She has also written and has been an advocate of democracy, social justice and women’s rights. She said that when Gandhi took charge of the Congress in 1998, many types of people emerged among the officials and leaders.

Big problem of 10 Janpath!

he/she wrote that this was the problem with 10 Janpath (Sonia Gandhi’s residence). Direct contact was lost because of junior officials. They were not party workers, but clerks and other employees working there. They closed all avenues of access to the leader, which affected the organizational system, ethics and had an impact on party members.”

he/she said, “Being Congress members, we had no active role in giving information to our leader on any issue, which is very important for the good performance of a party. There were very few interactions between us, we We didn’t know who was in our leader’s close circle. That’s where things started going wrong.”

praise of indira gandhi

According to Heptulla, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were not in politics at that time. Regarding Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, she says, our leader’s behavior was contrary to the best practices and principles of cooperation that had developed in the Congress over many decades. he/she wrote that Indira Gandhi always spoke with an open heart. She was available to the general members.