Profiles | Phangnon Konyak |
Soon after S. Phangnon Konyak was elected unopposed Nagaland’s first woman Rajya Sabha member on March 24, Pradesh Congress Committee president Kewekhape Therie was quoted as saying that Nagaland’s 60 legislators destroyed the image of “the Christian State”.
Mr. Therie was targeting the “Hindutva” BJP, Ms. Konyak’s party and minor partner in the coalition government headed by the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party. But many attributed his statement to the general perception that women have no place in the State’s “money- and muscle-powered” politics. Nagaland has not had a single woman MLA since it attained statehood in December 1963.
