Usha Thakur is an Indian politician and a member of

Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha or the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Madhya Pradesh state in India. The seat of the Vidhan Sabha is at Bhopal, the capital of the state. It is housed in the ''Vidh ...

. She belongs to

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

. She is the former Cabinet Minister in the

Government of Madhya Pradesh The Government of Madhya Pradesh (abbreviated as MP) or Madhya Pradesh Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 55 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the governor of Madhya Prade ...

Early life and education

Usha Thakur was born in

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

in an average middle-class family. She developed interest in poetry and

Hindi literature Hindi literature () includes literature in the various Central Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Hindi, some of which have different writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃśa such as Awad ...

from childhood and later pursued an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. She also sings

Bhajan Bhajan is an Indian term for any devotional song with a religious theme or spiritual ideas, specifically among Dharmic religions, in any language. The term bhajanam (Sanskrit: भजनम्) means ''reverence'' and originates from the root w ...

in religious ceremonies and is very vocal on her views on women.

Controversies

Usha Thakur courted controversy by supporting banning of Muslim youths from

Navratra Navaratri () is an annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess. It spans over nine nights, first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and again i ...

Garba venues, alleging that Muslim youths court Hindu girls with a ploy to convert them to Islam. She also urged all the garba organizers in her constituency to verify the identities of all the entrants using their voter IDs. On 25 September 2015, she said that Muslims should sacrifice their sons instead of

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s if they value the

qurban ''Qurbān'' () or ''uḍḥiyah'' () as referred to in Islamic law, is a ritual animal sacrifice of a livestock animal during Eid al-Adha. The concept and definition of the word is derived from the Qur'an, the sacred scripture of Muslims, and i ...

i festival.

References

Living people People from Indore 1966 births Women in Madhya Pradesh politics Madhya Pradesh politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Madhya Pradesh 21st-century Indian women politicians Politicians from Indore Madhya Pradesh MLAs 2023–2028 {{MadhyaPradesh-BJP-politician-stub