Popular Actress-Turned-Politician Khushbu Sundar Nominated As Member Of National Commission for Women

Popular actress-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar has been nominated as a National Commission for Women member.

Khushbu will serve as a member of NCW for three years from the date of assumption of charge, a notification issued on February 24 by the Union Ministry Of Women And Child Development said.

NCW is a statutory body of the Government of India that advises the government on all policy matters affecting women.

In a Twitter post, BJP’s Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai congratulated Ms. Sundar on behalf of his party and further said it was a recognition of her relentless pursuit and fight for women’s rights. Khushbu is currently a National Executive member of the BJP.

Born into a Muslim family in West Andheri in Mumbai, Khushbu attained superstardom in the Tamil movie industry. She enjoyed staggering popularity in the cinema-crazed state and featured in many successful films.

Known for her outspoken views, Khushbu has often courted controversies and has been frequently subject to derogatory attacks from her political opponents in Tamil Nadu.

Before her foray into politics, Khushbu’s remarks about premarital sex in an interview with a Tamil media publication in 2005 created a furore, including several cases filed against her.

In the interview, Khushbu urged society to come out of the thinking that girls should be virgins at the time of marriage. She was cleared in all cases regarding the controversy (almost 25) by the Supreme Court in April 2010.

Despite repeatedly expressing her admiration for former CM Jayalalithaa, Khushbu sprang a surprise in 2010 by joining the then-ruling DMK in the presence of the then-party chief and Chief Minister, the late M Karunanidhi. During her stint in DMK, she was repeatedly subject to jibes and insinuations about her proximity to Karunanidhi.

With the advent of M.K Stalin as Karunanidhi’s successor, Khushbu was marginalised in the party. She quit DMK in 2014 and joined Congress. She was also the star campaigner of the Congress in the 2016 Assembly polls.

With Congress’s electoral fortunes plummeting across the nation and intra-party feuds stymying her growth in the party, Khushbu joined BJP in the run-up to the 2021 state assembly elections. She was fielded as the party’s candidate in the Thousand Lights Assembly constituency in 2021, but despite running an energetic campaign, she lost to DMK’s N. Ezhilan.

Though she has frequently shifted political allegiance, Khushbhu has been vocal on the issue of the safety and welfare of women.