Dipak Kumar A. Patel (born 12 July 1953 in

Mufulira Mufulira, is a town in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. Mufulira means "Place of Abundance and Peace". The town developed around the Mufulira Copper Mine in the 1930s. The town also serves as the administrative capital of Mufulira District. ...

) is a

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

n politician of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n origin. His ancestral roots traces back to

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. He served long tenures both as a legislator and as the Minister of Trade, Commerce, and Industry.

Career

Patel was elected in 1991 to the

National Assembly of Zambia The National Assembly is Zambia's unicameral legislative body. Between 1972 and 1990, Zambia was a one-party state with the United National Independence Party (UNIP) as the sole legal party. The current National Assembly, formed following elect ...

under the

Movement for Multi-Party Democracy The Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) also known as New Hope MMD is a political party in Zambia. Originally formed to oust the previous government, MMD controlled an absolute majority in parliament between 1991 and 2001, when its past lead ...

(MMD) in the Lusaka Central constituency. During this time he was also a member of the MMD's national executive committee. He was appointed Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industry from 1991 to 1992, then held a succession of Cabinet Minister positions in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (1992), the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Child Development (1992–1993), and the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industry (1993–1996). He was one of two cabinet-level members of Indian origin in

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Frederick Chiluba Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba (30 April 1943 – 18 June 2011) was a Zambian politician who was the second president of Zambia from 1991 to 2002. Chiluba, a trade union leader, won the country's multi-party presidential election in 1991 as t ...

's government, the other being Minister of Agriculture Suresh Desai. However, he resigned from that last position in February 1996 due to disagreements with Chiluba; specifically, he objected to a proposed constitutional amendment which would bar individuals of "foreign parentage" from contesting the presidency. In the 1996 elections, he ran without any party affiliation and was returned to his seat representing Lusaka Central; in the

2001 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2001. Africa * 2001 Beninese presidential election * 2001 Cape Verdean parliamentary election * 2001 Cape Verdean presidential election * 2001 Chadian presidential election * 2001 Gabonese legislative ...

he ran on the

Forum for Democracy and Development The Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) is a political party in Zambia. History The FDD was founded in 2001 by former members of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), disaffected by Frederick Chiluba's efforts to change the constit ...

ticket and was again elected.

Relations with Mwanawasa

In 2002, while a lawmaker, Patel received a police summons for having allegedly insulted

Levy Mwanawasa Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (3 September 1948 – 19 August 2008) was the third president of Zambia. He served as president from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. Mwanawasa is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the corrupt ...

, who was elected president in the 2001 election; defaming the head of state is a criminal offence under Zambian law and may incur a jail sentence of up to three years. The '' Zambia Post'' had published a quotation by Patel in which he called Mwanawasa a "cabbage", a reference to Mwanawasa's alleged rigging of the presidential election. Police also arrested the ''Post'' editor Fred M'membe, but M'membe himself believed Patel was the police's real target. However, Mwanawasa appointed Patel to the position of Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, and Industry in February 2003, in a surprise move which also saw a number of other opposition lawmakers named to his cabinet. During his tenure under Mwanawasa, Patel served as Chair-Co-ordinator for the Least Developed Countries

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

negotiations in 2005. Patel later changed his opinion of Mwanawasa, and after the latter's death praised him for his independence, stating that "Everyone thought he was going to be

Chiluba Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba (30 April 1943 – 18 June 2011) was a Zambian politician who was the second president of Zambia from 1991 to 2002. Chiluba, a trade union leader, won the country's multi-party presidential election in 1991 as t ...

’s puppet, but he showed very quickly that he took orders from no one".

Awards and honours

*2001 Defender of Democracy award from international NGO

Parliamentarians for Global Action Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) is a non-profit, non-partisan international network of committed legislators, that informs and mobilizes parliamentarians in all regions of the world to advocate for human rights and the rule of law, democr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Dipak 1953 births Living people Members of the National Assembly of Zambia Movement for Multi-Party Democracy politicians People from Lusaka Zambian politicians of Indian descent