Who is Bilkis, the Shaheen Bagh ‘dadi’ listed among TIME’s most influential people of 2020?

Time magazine reveals the list of 100 “Most Influential People of 2020”, in which our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, actor Ayushmann Khurrana along with Bilkis, “Dadi of Shaheen Bagh”, who is an 82-year-old woman and comes in the popularity when she became the main face of the Shaheen Bagh protests happened in Delhi. Our PM Modi is listed in the category of “Leaders”, while Bilkis has been featured under “Icons”.

Time magazine selected the list of 100 persons which features pioneers, artists, titans, leaders, and important icons “who have had the most impact this year”. In the extreme coldest winter, an 82 years old woman named Bilkis sat with hundreds of women in a normal tent with a pretty smile and a normal shawl over the shoulders at the Shaheen Bagh. They sit there for the protesting of CAA/NRC around three months.

After they are getting noticed by the peoples they became the figure of stability and strength and lately, they are known as the “Dadis of Shaheen Bagh”. Dadi sits on the road with a chanting garland in one hand and our national flag on other hand and she becomes the voice of the deprecated in India and she sits on a protest from early morning 8 AM IST to midnight.

The journalist, author, and writer of the Time Magazine Rana Ayyub written about the women who sit in the coldest winter of Delhi and becomes the main face of the protest, he said that “Bilkis enhanced the voice of the deprecated and she becomes the representative of endurance in a country, where the politicians of Modi government always asphyxiated the choice of women and youths”.

In the month of January, when the protest of CAA/NRC has started in the Shaheen Bagh, Bilkis said in an interview that “They are old and the whole situation which is created, they are fighting for this and they are not doing this for themselves, this is all for their children.. that’s why they spend their nights and days in the road with the extreme winter”. Bilkis is the mother of Rohith Vemula and Junaid Khan and she raised the national flag on 26th January on the occasion of Republic day in front of several peoples. After that, many songs, poems, and slogans are made for her bravery.