India's Sargam Koushal wins Mrs World 2022, crown back in India after 21 years
New Delhi, Dec 18: Sargam Koushal was named Mrs World 2022, besting contestants from 63 countries to bring the title back to India after 21 years.
Mrs World 2021 Shaylyn Ford of the US presented the crown to Mumbai-based Koushal at a ceremony held at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino on Saturday evening.
Mrs Polynesia was named the first runner-up, followed by Mrs Canada as the second runner-up.
The Mrs India pageant announced the winner on its official Instagram page on Sunday.
"The long wait is over, it's after 21 years we have the CROWN back!" read the post.
"We've got the crown back after 21-22 years. I'm so excited. Love you India, love you world," the newly crowned Mrs World, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, said in a video following the ceremony.
Aditi Govitrikar, the actor-model who brought the Mrs India crown to India in 2001, also shared a congratulatory message on the unverified page of the Mrs World pageant.
Tagging Koushal, Govitrikar wrote: "Heartiest congratulations @sargam3 @mrsindiainc so happy to have been part of the journey.. it was time the crown came back after 21 years."
For the final round, Koushal wore a pink centre slit glittery gown designed by Bhawna Rao and was mentored for the runway by pageant expert and model Alesia Raut.
Mrs World is the first beauty pageant for married women, launched in 1984.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
