Meira Kumar first woman Speaker in world's largest democracy

History was made in India Wednesday when diplomat-turned-politician Meira Kumar, 64, became the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha - the lower house of parliament - with MPs cutting across party lines to elect the Dalit leader.

The newly elected members of the 15th Lok Sabha watched in rapt attention as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, who were engaged in a bitter war of words until a month ago, together led Meira Kumar to the podium.

Political leaders from various parties paid rich tributes to Meira Kumar, who had quit the prestigious Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1985 to join the Congress, a party of which her father, the late Jagjivan Ram, was a revered leader.

"In many ways it is a historic event as it is for the first time that a Congress woman member of house has been unanimously elected as speaker," Manmohan Singh said, evoking thunderous applause in the splintered 545-member Lok Sabha.

Party president Sonia Gandhi proposed Meira Kumar's name for the post. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seconded it.

Member after member welcomed the speaker. She returned the compliments, saying it was "a "historic decision" to elect a woman to the coveted post and thanked everyone for being chosen for the honour.

She assured the house that she would be judicious and give all members equal opportunity to speak.

Meira Kumar told a press conference later: "It was a historic decision to elect a woman speaker. I am deeply honoured that I have been elected the first woman speaker of the great and vibrant democracy that we have."

Later, when journalists asked her if men should be scared now that India has a woman president and a speaker, she laughed: "Well, I think so."

The prime minister said he hoped the "charm" and "grace" of the new speaker would "calm frayed tempers that sometimes happen in the house", evoking widespread laughter from MPs.

The Lok Sabha speaker's status in the Warrant of Precedence is next only to the president, vice president and prime minister. Meira Kumar is the 16th speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Advani said he did not have any idea that Meira Kumar would be elected the speaker when she was sworn in May 22 with 18 other cabinet ministers of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

"I read (in newspapers) that your voters are disappointed with your election as speaker but I feel you will be able to serve the people better in this position than as a minister," he said.

Finance Minister Mukherjee, leader of the lower house, said: "Your experience as a diplomat, political organiser, administrator in government and long standing in parliament and association with this house will help you render your responsibility as best as possible... in the real temple of democracy."

Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta said Meira Kumar's election marked a new chapter in India's parliament.

Meira Kumar belongs to the Dalit - formerly untouchable - community, one reason why political parties across the spectrum in the hung house rushed to support her.

The new speaker got down to her new job even as senior leaders of various parties were busy singing paeans to her and wishing her success. This was when two leaders from her home state of Bihar exchanged heated arguments in the house.

In her mild-mannered but firm way, Meira Kumar expunged the remarks made by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Sharad Yadav, who had a spat when the former was giving his congratulatory speech to the new speaker.

"Nothing of this will go on record," the speaker said.

A double graduate of Delhi University, Meira Kumar joined the IFS in 1973 and served in the Indian missions in Spain, Britain and Mauritius.

She took to politics in 1985 when Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister. She was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Karol Bagh constituency in the national capital.

After one defeat, she shifted to Sasaram in Bihar -- a constituency that her father Jagjivan Ram, a long-time confidant of Indira Gandhi, represented for years in the Lok Sabha.

Meira Kumar, while taking the compliments of one and all, exhorted the Lok Sabha MPs to put the elections behind them and address the social and economic problems facing the country.

United News of India reports:
Sixty four-year-old Meira Kumar is the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the world's largest democracy.

She is also the second Dalit to hold this position, the first being the late G M C Balayogi.

By opting for a woman as a Speaker for the first time, the Congress hopes to take the message of social and woman empowerment into the rival camp.

The Congress decision to have a woman Speaker is a clear signal that the 124-year-old party is bent on getting passed the long pending bill seeking to give 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state Assemblies.

The women's quota bill was one of the major electoral promises in the Congress manifesto for the 2009 general elections. The bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the first UPA government towards the fag end of its term early this year.

The election of Ms Kumar was unanimous with the Opposition also supporting her candidature.

She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 general elections from the Sasaram seat in Bihar, where the Congress could manage to get only two out of the 40 seats. She has earlier represented Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in the Lok Sabha.

Ms Kumar is soft-spoken but a firm pursuer of her social missions.

Daughter of late Deputy Prime Minister and prominent dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram and Indrani Devi, Meira Kumar gave up a career in the Indian Foreign Service which she had joined in 1973 on the request of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to enter politics and claim her father's legacy.

She was born in Patna on March 31,1945. Her husband, Manjul Kumar is a Supreme Court lawyer and they have three children, Anshul, Swati and Devangna, all married.

Poet, painter, sportsperson and a social activist, Ms Kumar was educated at Indraprastha College and Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is a graduate in law and holds a Masters in English.

Ms Kumar successfully contested for the Lok Sabha seat from Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh in 1985. She was a member of the 11th and 12th Lok Sabha, re-elected with a record margin from her father's former constituency of Sasaram in Bihar.

She was inducted into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2004.

Ms Kumar has actively participated in a number of movements for social reforms and protection of human rights.

Besides being a Minister, she has served on various important posts in Parliament including as Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs, General-Secretary, All India Congress Committee (AICC), Member, Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Public Accounts Committee.

Ms Kumar has also been closely asociated with a number of social and cultural organisations. She is President and Founder of the All India Samta Movement (also its founder). She has been on the Governing Body, Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 1987-92, and on the Central Advisory Board of Education, 1977-90 and 2004 onwards.

She has served on the National Commission on Population, and the National Integration Council.

She was Chairperson, National Drought Relief Committee of the Congress party during the century's worst drought in 1967. She had launched a Family Adoption Scheme under which drought-affected families were adopted by affluent families.

Ms Kumar has been committed to human rights and abolition of the caste system. She has visited a number of places where atrocities were committed against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Ms Kumar's hobbies include painting and writing poems some of which have been published. She was the editor of Pavan Prasad--a monthly magazine (1980-92).