Ibha Shamim: All for a cause

Jamshedpur, Jan. 14: Life has been a roller-coaster ride for this proud lady ? an avowed Congress supporter.

From a schoolteacher to the Congress headquarters, it was a long hard road journeyed alone ? with faith, courage, honesty and a will of steel. She has seen it all and hence, the decision to fight for her ?political right? was only natural. Congress runs in her blood.

Meet Ibha Shamim, a descendant of the first president of Indian National Congress W.C. Bonnerjee, who has thrown her hat in the ring from the Jamshedpur west constituency.

?I am not new to the Congress. In fact, I have been associated with the party for more than three decades.?

Born and brought up in a Bengali-Muslim family in the steel city, Shamim joined the party way back in the early Seventies after her marriage to Shamimuddin Ahmad.

?I joined the Youth Congress as my husband was an office-bearer.? Her tryst with the party began in the post-emergency period after it defeated the Janata Party.

?That was a turning point. People were criticising Indira Gandhi, but I decided to stick on to the party. It was not the first time that her association with the party was questioned. After December 6, 1992, almost everybody lost faith in the party?s credentials, but I was determined and refused to remove the Congress flag from my house. People even threatened that they would burn down my house, but I decided to fight it out alone.?

Shamim feels that there is a big task ahead of her. The Mango and Azadnagar areas under Jamshedpur West constituency are in a sorry state.

?Like every politician, Shamim, too, is targeting the downtrodden. There is poverty in the surrounding areas and the hospitals are in a sorry state. The drains are not cleaned up and in many cases, most of the deserving people haven?t been issued the red card or the ration card,? she says.

?There are still places in the city, where men carry night soil on their heads and nobody even bothers to take a look? she said.