Meenakashi Lekhi

Meenakshi Lekhi (born 30 April 1967) is an Indian politician and the current Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture of India from 7 July 2021. She is a Member of Parliament from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency in the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha from the Bharatiya Janata Party. She is also a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. She won the high-profile New Delhi parliamentary constituency as a BJP candidate in the 2014 elections and was re-elected in 2019. In July 2016, she was appointed as chairperson of the Committee on Privileges of the Lok Sabha in Parliament. On 26 July 2019, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla appointed Lekhi as a chairperson of parliamentary committee on Public Undertakings and is continuing since then in that position. Besides writing articles in journals, periodicals and newspapers on socio-political issues, she participates in various television shows on matters on national and international importance. Lekhi writes 'Forthwrite', a fortnightly column in The Week magazine. With her equal command over English and Hindi, she comes as a good debater in the parliament where she has participated in numerous debates on matters of national importance in the Lok Sabha, such as debates on "intolerance" in India and the Triple Talaq Bill. She has also distinguished herself as an active participant in the various parliamentary processes and was awarded with the "Best Debut Women Parliamentarian" award by Lokmat in 2017.