[Photo: Farooq Abdullah, the patron of the National Conference, poses for a picture with Agatha Sangma.]

HER father is a big fan of Agatha Christie novels. So no prizes for guessing how India’s youngest minister got her name.

All eyes at the swearing-in ceremony on May 28 were on 28-year-old Agatha Sangma, the diminutive MP from Tura in cloud-kissed Meghalaya.

She wore a traditional stole and sarong in beige and white. Given that she is short, the mike had to be adjusted for her to take the oath. She fumbled twice during the oath-taking but the entire hall applauded her.

Tura is a constituency that her dad Purno Agitok Sangma had won nine times before he decided to move into state politics and vacated the seat for his youngest daughter.

That was in May last year when she won a by-election in which dad campaigned for her win. But this time round, it was mostly Ms Sangma who did the campaigning and she won convincingly.

To people in north-east India, the bespectacled minister is now a beacon of hope. She has been named minister of state for rural development, a portfolio which she had expected. For most people in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya, where she hails from, there are two main concerns affecting their daily lives – lack of good roads and potable water.

In a conversation with IANS at her Aurangzeb Road residence in the capital, she said: “I have a big responsibility – to integrate the north-east with the rest of the country. Economic empowerment of women and giving employment to youth without losing our cultural heritage will be my priorities.”

She said that work is to build a national highway in her state which, once completed, will ensure that one does not have to go through Assam to reach the Garo Hills.

Since her father had been an MP from 1977, Ms Sangma grew up in Delhi where she studied at Convent of Jesus and Mary.

She did a law degree from ILS Law College, Pune, and a master’s in environmental management from Nottingham University, UK.

Last year she told Society magazine that law was not her first love: “I wanted to become a veterinary doctor but my father was very keen that I take up law. And that’s what I did. I was practising law with Fox Mandle Little and Co, a law firm in Noida. But after winning the seat, I gave up my job to concentrate on politics.”

On her way to Delhi after visiting Tura, she told journalists in Kolkata that her rural development portfolio would give her scope to usher in development in the rural areas of the country in general and the north-east in particular.

Her performance will be watched carefully by her own people. Ms Mita Songdi, a 35-year-old Garo Hills resident, said since Ms Sangma has become a minister, she is hoping for better water facilities in their homes.

“We are very proud of Agatha. Finally we have someone who is from this place, has seen the troubles of our daily lives and now can do something about it. Lack of clean drinking water is a big problem here. Every now and then my children, like many others, fall ill because of that,” Ms Songdi told IANS.

“No one cares for us here. The officials are apathetic to our condition, but I am sure Agatha will change things. I heard someone say that she has promised to bring change for us in Delhi,” the homemaker said cheerfully.

Better roads is yet another “change” that people of the Garo Hills are hoping for.

Ms Devi Rengta, a school teacher in Tura, said: “We definitely need better roads. The roads are perpetually in a bad state because of the rains. We may be a little better off in the town, but in the villages you have to literally look for the road once the showers come! They become completely cut off.”

Ms Sangma, who is the youngest in her family, is single and lists reading, writing, photography and walking as her hobbies on the Lok Sabha website.

Her two brothers are involved in state politics. Her sister is the only one who has stayed away from politics.

But dad had his way in naming her. No suspense here. He named her Christie.