Renuka Chowdhury

Renuka Chowdary (Telugu: రేణుక చౌదరి Rēṇuka Caudari)(Alternate spellings: Chowdhury, Choudhury, Chaudhary, Choudhry) is a Rajya Sabha MP of Congress from Andhra Pradesh, and a former Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Government of India.

Early life

Born to Air Commander Suryanarayana Chowdhury and Shrimati Vasundhra on 13 August 1954 in Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). Renuka is the eldest of three daughters. She studied at the Welham Girls' School, Dehradun and received her B.A. in Industrial Psychology from Bangalore University. Renuka married Sridhar Chowdhury in 1973. She is a member of Jat Mahasabha.^[1]

Career

Ms. Chowdhury entered politics in 1984 as a member of Telugu Desam Party. She was a member of the Rajya Sabha for two consecutive terms and Chief Whip of Telugu Desam Parliamentary party from 1986 to 1998. She was also the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare from 1997 to 1998 in the cabinet of H. D. Deve Gowda. She left Telugu Desam Party to join Congress party in 1998. In 1999 and 2004, she was elected to the 13th and 14th Lok Sabha respectively representing Khammam. Other positions include memberships on the Committee on Finance (1999–2000) and Committee on the Empowerment of Women (2000–2001). In May 2004 she became the Minister of State for Tourism in the UPA I government. She was the Union minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Women and Child Development in the UPA I government from January 2006 to May 2009. In the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Renuka Chowdary was defeated by Nama Nageswara Rao of TDP from Khammam by 1,24,448 votes.^[2]

The Mumbai newspaper, Mid Day, reported in 2009 that, in response to "Sri Ram Sena's Valentine's Day threat" Chowdary said that youth should "swarm" pubs and make a point to the "moral police brigade".^[3] After the 2009 Mangalore pub attack by the Sri Ram Sena Chouwdary commented that Mangalore had been "talibanized". This resulted in a case being filed against her by the town's mayor, accusing her of glorifying isolated incidents and making generalized comments about the city.^[4][5] The "Pub Bharo" campaign was actually being headed by her younger daughter Tejaswini^[6]

Chowdary became a spokesperson for the Congress and was re-elected to Rajya Sabha in 2012.^[7]

Parliamentary Committees

• Member, Committee on Finance (1999-2000)
• Member, Committee on the Empowerment of Women (2000-2001)
• Member, Committee on Government Assurances (May 2012 – Sept. 2014)
• Member, Committee on Finance (May 2012 – May 2014)
• Member, Business Advisory Committee (May 2013 – Sept. 2014)
• Member, Committee on Agriculture (Sept. 2014–Present)
• Member, House Committee (Sept. 2014–Present)
• Member, General Purposes Committee (April 2016 – Present)
• Chairperson, Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests (April 2016 – Present)

Controversies

In June 2016, Ms. Chowdhury courted controversy over the treatment of her domestic help. The picture of her in a plush restaurant with her family members seated while the domestic help of their house stood next to them stirred up a lot of discussions on the Internet. There was no statement made by Ms. Chowdhury in this regard.

The Controversial Photo

Ms. Chowdhury carries controversy wherever she goes. In 2011 at an event she said, pant-suits are ridiculous. Men look good in dhotis, & being a Health Minister she can vouch that dhotis increase fertility.^[8]

In 2015, Ms. Chowdhury was booked by Hyderabad police under the ST/SC Atrocities Act for allegedly taking bribe of over Rs 1.10 crore from an aspirant by promising him an Assembly Election ticket^[9]

In early 2000, India's biggest tax evader Hasan Ali Khan's close aide Tapuriah revealed very sordid details of the relationship between Khan & Ms. Chowdhury to the Indian authorities. Tapuriah even confessed to ED in his interrogation that he gave Khan a diamond worth 1.2 crore Rupees, which was to be gifted to Ms. Chowdhury.^[10]

Ms. Chowdhury got the infamous Domestic Violence Act passed during her tenure as Minister of Women and Child Development without any debate or discussion on its relevance or pros and cons to the Indian society prior to its enactment.^[11] Her elder daughter was going through a divorce while she was the Minister of the concerned department & had filed a dowry case against her daughter's in-laws.^[12]

On being asked by Karan Thapar in an interview if she thought that men should first suffer before she considers amendments to check misuse of the law Ms. Chowdhury replied, "It is not such a bad idea, except that I have such pity for men." At one instance she even said "It is men's turn to suffer". In another instance, she publicly urged women to trust condoms and not their husbands.^[13]

References