Menaka Gandhi Biography 
Menaka Gandhi is an Indian politician, environmentalist and former model. She fights for the cause of animal rights. She is the widow of the Indian politician Sanjay Gandhi and daughter-in-law of the former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. She served as a minister in four governments and had written a number of books on various topics like law, animal welfare, and etymology.
She was born on 26th August 1956 in a Sikh family in Delhi. Her parents are Colonel Tarlochan Singh Anand and Amardeep Kaur Anand. She studied at Lawrence School, Sanawar and at Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi. She met Sanjay Gandhi when she was doing her modeling for Bombay Dyeing and both of them got married on 23rd September 1974. They have one son Feroze Varun. Later Sanjay was killed in a plane crash when she was just 23.
Menaka Gandhi assisted her husband and mother-in-law in their political career. After the death of her husband, she turned against her mother-in-law and in 1982 she was driven out of the house with her son. In 1983 she founded her own political party, Rashtriya Sanjay Manch and won 4 seats in the state elections of Andhra Pradesh. In 1988 she merged it with Janata Dal and became its General Secretary.
She supported BJP in 1999 election and became Minster of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in the BJP Union Cabinet. She had a main role in creating India’s Animal Welfare Ministry. She won parliamentary elections for six times and served as a Minister in four governments. She contested for BJP in 2004 and won from Philibhit. In 2009, she won from Aonla constituency.
She is oriented towards her goal of environmental and animal protection. She has won international awards for the cause. She started the organization of People for Animals in 1992. She is a vegan and advocated this lifestyle. She anchored the Television program Heads and Tails that highlighted the sufferings meted out to the animals.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 24, 2017
