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Agatha Sangma is the youngest minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet. Daughter of former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma is only 28 years old.She belongs to the NCP and has won for second time from Tura in Meghalaya. She first entered the previous Lok Sabha through a by election and was re-elected this time also.
She said, “It was a very pleasant surprise. Because, I had thehonour to receive a call from the Prime Minister. He informedme that he has inducted me into his Cabinet.”
She went slow and fumbled twice, but the entire hall at Rashtrapati Bhavan erupted in applause and smiles as Agatha Sangma, the youngest Agatha Sangma, daughter of former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, waits to take the oath as the youngest minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet. (AFP Photo)
minister in the Manmohan Singh government, took oath on Thursday.
Wearing a traditional stole and sarong in beige and white, 28-year-old Sangma folded her hands into a gentle namaste for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi sitting in the front row, before taking her place beside President Prathibha Patil to take oath in Hindi.
However the mike had to be specially adjusted for the petite first-time minister.
Daughter of former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma, who was present at the swearing-in ceremony Thursday and looked on appreciatively as his daughter took oath, Agatha hails from Meghalaya and is a lawyer by profession.
Quite a few faces had an anticipatory look as Agatha Sangma fumbled more than once mid-sentence. However, Sonia Gandhi kept smiling throughout her oath taking, nodding appreciatively and then clapping with everyone else as Agatha completed her oath taking.
Walking back to take her seat, a number of people either folded their hands into a namaste to greet her or shook hands with the young minister.
“Foreign origin was an issue blown out of proportion. I think it has followed my father longer than it should have,” Agatha said today, soon after she came to know that Manmohan Singh had selected him for his council of ministers.
“He has never opposed the suggestion of Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister,” Agatha added.
It was after Sangma’s statement on Sonia’s foreign origin that the former Speaker fell out with the Congress.
But Agatha’s selection has come as a lifeline for the Garo leader who was gravitating towards the NDA. Sources said it had rekindled hopes of sustaining his and his family’s political future.
Agatha said her selection was a “collective decision” of NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Manmohan and Sonia.
The youngest of four siblings in the Sangma household, she said being a minister at the Centre had “humbled” her.
Clear about her priorities, the young leader wants to “integrate the Northeast with the rest of India”. She also wants the Northeast included in educational syllabi.
“We have leaders like Togan Nengmenja (a Garo Hills hero who fought the British) whose names should be known by others,” said the lawyer-MP.
Jitin Prasada of Congress, who was the minister ofstate for steel, was the youngest minister in the previous UPAgovernment at 35 years of age.
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