Rita Bahuguna
Encyclopedia
Rita Bahuguna Joshi is a Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 leader and current president of the Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

 Congress Committee. She is the daughter of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, former Chief Minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...

 of Uttar Pradesh .

Early life

Rita Bahuguna was born to Hemwati Bahuguna and Kamla Bahuguna. She holds an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 and a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in History and is a professor in Medieval/ Modern History in University of Allahabad. She is also a recipient of U.N. Award of Excellence as "Most Distinguished Women in South Asia"

Political career

Rita Bahuguna held the post of mayor of Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...

 from 1995-2000. She was a former vice president of National Council of Women. She was the president of All India Mahila Congress since 2003 and is the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee since September 2007. She contested twice in Loksabha elections, but lost both the times.

Arrest

On 16 July 2009, she was detained for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati
Mayawati
Mayawati is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India. She heads the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents the Bahujans or Dalits, the weakest strata of Indian society. This is her fourth term as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh...

. She was later sent to the Moradabad
Moradabad
Moradabad is a city and a municipal corporation in Moradabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established in 1600 by prince Murad, the son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan; as a result the city came to be known as Moradabad. It is the administrative headquarters of...

 jail on 14 days' judicial custody.

Joshi's speech was about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh and the increasing number of rapes in the state. She cited a few cases in which some women were paid 25,000 rupees compensation after being raped. She remarked that simply compensating the women with money was not enough. Women who are raped should "throw the money at Mayawati's face and tell her 'you should also be raped and I will give you 10 million rupees" she said in the speech.

She was one of the party leaders arrested by the Meerut range police on 11 May, 2011 from the Bhatta Parsaul village of western Uttar Pradesh along with the fellow leaders Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi is an Indian politician and member of the parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. His political party is the Indian National Congress.-Early life and career:...

 and Digvijay Singh. They were taking part in an agitation staged by the local farmers condemning the state government policies. A top police officer of the range confirmed their detention to the media adding that they were about to produce the trio to a local court on the following working day.
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