Najma Heptulla

Some Lesser Known Facts About Najma Heptulla

• Does Najma Heptulla smoke?: Yes

• Does Najma Heptulla drink?: Yes

• Her family is of Arab descent and they claim to be Sayyid.

• She is a second cousin to actor Aamir Khan. 

• She is also the grand-niece of Indian Independence activist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

• Her husband, “Akbarali A. Heptulla” played an important role in the formulation of the newspaper ‘Patriot’. He died in 2007.

• In 1980, she joined the Congress; as she was inspired by Indira Gandhi. 

• she is a strong advocate of women’s empowerment. She played an effective role at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. In addition, she directed the Indian delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 1997, and she received a special invitation to the International Women’s Leadership Conference at Harvard University, Massachusetts the same year.

• She has been a member of both Congress and BJP. After being a member of Congress for about three decades, she joined BJP in 2004. As per the reports, she left Congress because she shared a creaky relationship with Congress President Sonia Gandhi. It was also believed that she was associated with BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and hence joined BJP. 

• She contested the Vice-Presidential elections but lost to Hamid Ansari in 2007 by 233 votes.

• She won a seat in Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and represented it from 2004 to 2010.

• She left the Rajya Sabha when her tenure ended in 2010, but she was again elected to the chamber from Madhya Pradesh in 2012.

•  She was appointed to the Rajya Sabha five times between 1986 and 2012.

• She gripped the post of Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha for 16 years.

• When she was elected as Union Minister Of Minority Affairs, she was the only Muslim minister serving in Narendra Modi‘s cabinet.

• After taking the charge of Minister of Minority Affairs in the Modi government, she said “We want to work for economic, social development and inclusive development (of minorities). Unless they don’t become a part of development process, there will be lopsided development.”

• She was elected as the Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia in 2017.

• She has written comprehensively on a range of wide subjects like human social security, environment, reforms for women, sustainable development etc and has penned a book called “AIDS: Approaches to Prevention.

• She has authored a number of publications, including India’s Progress in Science and Technology: Continuity and Change (1986), Indo-West Asian Relations: The Nehru Era (1991), and Reforms for Women: Future Options (1992).