Meira Kumar elected India's first woman speaker

Jun 3, 2009, 8:08 GMT

   New Delhi - India's parliament Wednesday elected its first-ever woman speaker, Meira Kumar, also a member of the 'untouchable' Dalit community, following the victory of the Congress party in national elections.

   Kumar, 64, was elected unanimously in the Parliament's newly constituted Lok Sabha, or the House of People, by a voice vote after Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed her name.

   The nomination of Kumar, a senior Congress politician, was also endorsed by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party after it was clear she was the only candidate for the post.

   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the leader of opposition LK Advani led Kumar to the speaker's chair amid enthusiastic thumping of desks by lawmakers in the house.

   'Madam, this is in many ways a historic occasion. For the first time, a woman member of this august house has been elected as speaker and that too, a woman belonging to the Dalit community,' Singh said in a congratulatory speech.

   A former diplomat and five-time member of parliament since 1985, Kumar is the daughter of the late Babu Jagjiwan Ram, a prominent Dalit leader and former deputy prime minister of India.

   Kumar was recently sworn in as a cabinet minister and given charge of the Water Resources Ministry but resigned on Sunday after the Congress party offered her the speaker's position.

   Tribal leader Karia Munda from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will be deputy speaker.

   Mentioning that she was the embodiment of her father's qualities, Singh expressed confidence that Kumar would be adept at dealing with the issues before Parliament.

   Advani and other top ministers of the Singh government including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also congratulated Kumar.

   'It would be my endeavour to run the house as well as I can and give a very fair chance to all sections of the house,' Kumar told reporters outside Parliament.

   Political analysts said giving Kumar the speaker's position boosts Congress' image as a pro-women party. It also projects Congress as a party working for the welfare of the Dalits.

   Although caste-based discrimination is banned in India, upper-caste Hindus still practice various forms of discrimination, including not allowing the low caste to worship at temples.

   Dalits form about 16 per cent of the country's 1.1 billion population. Only a small percentage of Dalits in India have posts of power or affluence.

   The vast majority, despite decades of affirmative action in their favour, still work as manual labourers, sweepers and scavengers and face discrimination borne of caste bias that refuses to go away.

   The newly-elected 543-member parliament began its first session on Monday after the Congress recorded a resounding victory in the April-May general elections. The short session which is scheduled to have seven sittings is due to conclude on June 9.