Meira Kumar is first dalit woman to preside over Lok Sabha

New Delhi, Jun 3 (PTI) From being a foreign service
officer to a five-term MP and then a Cabinet minister, Meera
Kumar has traversed a long way and a varied course that will
come in handy to her in running the Indian Lok Sabha that
often throws itself into scenes of tumult.

Daughter of late Congress leader Jagjivan Ram, 64-year-
old Kumar, Congress' dalit face, had a steady rise in the
echelons of power becoming the first woman to occupy the high
office of Lok Sabha Speaker

The career of Kumar in the rough and tumble of politics
began when she quit her cushy IFS job and decided to fight the
polls in 1985, a year before her father's death.

She was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time from
Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh in 1985, defeating Mayawati and Ram
Vilas Paswan.

Kumar became an MP again in 1996 and in 1998 from
Delhi's Karol Bagh constituency but lost her seat in 1999 when
NDA returned to power. She was re-elected in 2004 with a huge
margin from Sasaram in Bihar, the constituency of her father.

In between, she had quit Congress for two years from
2000 citing differences with the party leadership. She
rejoined the party in 2002.

Soft-spoken Kumar became a Cabinet minister in the 2004
government of Manmohan Singh. She held the Social Justice and
Empowerment portfolio.

Kumar was appointed a Cabinet minister for a second
time by Singh last week but resigned from the Indian
government on Sunday night after being chosen for Speakership.

Armed with a degree in law and a masters in English,
she joined the IFS in 1973 and served in the embassies in
Spain, the UK and Mauritius. She also served as a member of
the India-Mauritius Joint Commission.

She was made an AICC General Secretary for two years
from 1990 and again from 1996 to 1998. She became a member
of the Congress Working Committee in 1990 and continued for
ten year till 2000. After a gap of two year, she was
reinducted in the CWC in 2002 and remained its member till
2004.

As an MP, she served, among others, as a member of the
Consultative Commitee attached to the External Affair
Ministry, Public Accounts Committee, Committee on Home Affairs
and its Sub-Committee on Personnel Policy of Central
Para-Military Forces and Joint Committee on Empowerment of
Women. She was also a member of Committees on Food and
Consumer Affairs and Environment and Forests.

Born in Patna on March 31, 1945, Kumar studied in
Indraprastha College and Miranda House in Delhi University.
She also has an advanced diploma in Spanish. Kumar became a
member of the Supreme Court Bar Association in 1980.

A keen sportperson, she has won medals in rifle
shooting, besides being associated with equestrian events.
Her interests include classical music.

She has been associated with a number of social and
charitable organisations, many of them named after her father.

Married to Manjul Kumar, a Supreme Court lawyer, she
has one son and two daughters. PTI