All the past prime ministers of the country including Manmohan Singh would in a way contribute to help the surviving kin of Bahadur Shah Zafar, India's last Emperor.
All the past prime ministers of the country including Manmohan Singh would in a way contribute to help the surviving kin of Bahadur Shah Zafar, India's last Emperor.
Proceeds from the sale of "Prime Ministers of India: Bharat Bhagya Vidhata," a coffee table book on the 14 prime ministers, would go to rehabilatate Sultana Begum, Bahadur Shah's great grand-daughter-in-law who currently ekes out a living selling tea on the streets of Kolkata.
The 534-page hard bound 12x 12 illustrated book, scheduled for release at the end of this month, enlists the performance of the leaders as well as their achievements and the controverises they survived, starting from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh.
Compiled by journalist Shivnath Jha and his wife Neena, it is the fourth book in the "Andolan Ek Pustak Se" movement, which was launched by the duo in the year 2007 to publish one book per year aiming to honour and help "those who have brought laurels to the country."
"Sultana Begum runs a tea stall in Cowies Ghat slum in Bengal's Howrah district. She lives in dirtiest of conditions and earns a living to support her family. We hope we can help her through the royalty we earn from the book," Shivnath Jha said.
The "Andolan Ek..." series was begun with a "Monograph on Ustad Bismillah Khan," to draw attention to the plight of the ailing shahnai maestro. Other books in the series include one on railway minister Lalu Prasad, "Lalu Prasad: India's Miracle," as well as "India calling -to commemorate India entering 60th year of Independance."
"It was 28 years ago that Begum Sultana's husband died and she had approached the West Bengal Government for help. The state government had given her a flat. She was forced to move out of it by local goons and now she is living a life of penury," said Jha.
Jha, who says he is being helped by friends and well wishers hopes to collect enough funds to rehabilitate Sultana Begum and also marry off her daughter.
"Earlier, we used the sale proceeds of the book on Bismillah Khan to rehabilitate Vinayak Rao Tope, the great grandson of Tantya Tope, a front line leader of the 1857 uprising. We hope we can do the same for Sultana Begum too," says the journalist.
The book which is priced at Rs 8000, includes writings by emininent personalities.
It incorporates a 20-page write-up of Sonia Gandhi's lecture "Living Politics: What India has taught me".
While historian Bipin Chandra has contributed a piece on Pandit Nehru, Hashmukh Shah, who was personal secretary to Morarji Desai, has given a detailed account of the late prime minister in his article.
Yashwant Sinha has written a piece on former prime minister and veteran Parliamentarian Atal Bihari Vajpayee, while Sunil Shastri has written on his father and late Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Rashtriya Lok Dal President Ajit Singh has contributed an article on his father late Chaudhary Charan Singh. Several journalists have also wielded their pen with pieces on Chandra Shekhar, HD Deve Gowda, VP Singh and IK Gujral.
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