 "<b>Newsmaker:</b> Maneka Gandhi")
You need only to read the short stories she wrote for her son, Varun, when he was a child to realise this. "Prince Boulababa", one of the stories in the collection titled The Rainbow and Other Stories , is about a fat, greedy king who thinks about nothing but food and ignores his kingdom until a young princess who agrees to marry him converts him. It is a simply told tale of greed and what it does to you. Of course, the subliminal message is also that you have to be good looking to be a good husband - a contention that is debatable. But then the story is written for children, after all.
Gandhi's gift of language, she has publicly acknowledged, came from her English teacher at Lawrence School, Sanawar. Paying a tribute to her teacher, Harish Dhillon, she said: "I was in the batch of 1972 and he taught us English literature. I was 13. His role in my life is immense and I have benefited so much from his teachings. I remember he gave me 11 out of 10 for an essay and no gift has ever come closer to this one."
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Gandhi is also known for her contribution to wildlife, the environment and to the development of environmental law. It is at her instance that the Indian army has virtually stopped the barbaric practice - especially in regiments such as the Gorkhas - of animal sacrifice.
Her politics is quite straightforward and well known: she was married to Sanjay Gandhi, she left the Gandhi household after he died, tried floating various political parties, beginning with the Sanjay Vichar Manch in 1982, which folded after it merged with the Janata Dal in 1988. From 1989 to 1991, Gandhi was environment minister. In 1996, she contested as an independent from Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh. In 1999, she supported the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was appointed minister for social justice and empowerment. During this period, she initiated many reforms for the Old Age Social and Income Security project. This was dovetailed into the New Pension System, which came into effect in 2004. Laws relating to adoption were made easier during her tenure. She also created a helpline for children living on the streets.
Then she joined the BJP in 2004. She contested again from Pilibhit and won the election. In 2009, her son contested the Pilibhit seat and she moved to Aonla, only to return to Pilibhit in 2014. She has been a seven-term Lok Sabha MP.
Her interaction with bureaucrats has, however, been somewhat tumultuous. But as minister, she has never turned away from grasping the nettle. She is one of the few serving ministers who asserted bluntly that budgetary cuts in outlays for her ministry would hurt programmes. (In February 2015, the budget of the women and child development ministry was cut from Rs 17,949.85 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 10,286.73 crore for 2015-16.) That is why it is so surprising that she has not spoken up on the diktat by the khap panchayats on love jihad and the activities of the Sri Ram Sena.
Gandhi spoke eloquently on justice for juveniles during the Rajya Sabha debate on the bill. Her fear, anguish and sadness about the state of children in society moved many in the opposition benches.