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Chaudhary Devi Lal (born Devi Dayal; 25 September 1915 – 6 April 2001) was an Indian statesman who served as 6th
Deputy Prime Minister of India The deputy prime minister of India (IAST: ''Bhārat Ke Upapradhānamantri'') is the second highest ranking minister of the Union in the executive branch of the Government of India and is a senior member of the Union Council of Ministers. The offi ...
from 1989 to 1991 in the governments of
V. P. Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008), shortened to V. P. Singh, was an Indian politician who was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He is India's only prime minister to ...
and
Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar ( 17 April 1927 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with ...
. Also popularly known as Tau (uncle), Lal emerged as farmer leader from the state of
Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
, and served as the
Chief Minister of Haryana The Chief Minister of Haryana is the chief executive of the Indian state of Haryana. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elec ...
first in 1977-79 and then in 1987-89.


Personal life

Chaudhary Devi Lal was born on 25 September 1915 in Teja Khera village of
Sirsa district Sirsa district is the largest district of Haryana state. Sirsa is the district headquarters. It is located on National Highway 9 and from the capital Delhi. Etymology The district is named after its headquarters, Sirsa. The name, Sirsa is de ...
in present-day Haryana. His mother's name was Shugna Devi and father's name was Lekh Ram Sihag. Lekh Ram was a Jat of Chautala village and he owned 2750 bighas of land. He received education up to middle-school. His son
Om Prakash Chautala Om Prakash Chautala (born 1 January 1935) is an Indian politician from Haryana who served as a former Chief Minister of Haryana from Indian National Lok Dal and son of 6th Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal. Biography Chautala is the ...
has also served as Haryana's chief minister four times. Lal's ancestral roots lie in
Bikaner Bikaner () is a city in the northwest of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is located northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. Bikaner city is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division. Formerly the capital o ...
, Rajasthan, from where his great-grandfather Tejaram had migrated. His father Lekhram relocated to Chautala village in 1919 when Lal was five years old. In 1928 at the age of 16 Lal participated in demonstration by
Lala Lajpat Rai Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 - 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter, and politician. He played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was one of the three members of ...
. He was a student of ''"Dev Samaj Public High School Moga"'' in Moga during his 10th class, at that time was arrested at Congress office in 1930, he quit studies and joined freedom movement. He also took wrestling lesson at an
Akhara Akhara or Akhada (Sanskrit and Hindi: अखाड़ा, shortened to ''khara'' Hindi: खाड़ा) is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists o ...
in
Badal ''Badal'' () is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language action drama film directed by Raj Kanwar. The film stars Bobby Deol and Rani Mukerji in lead roles with Amrish Puri. The movie is inspired by '' The Devil's Own'' (1997), starring Harrison Ford a ...
village of Punjab. He was first elected MLA in 1952. Lal comes from a prolific political dynasty of Haryana. His elder brother Sahib Ram Sihag was the first politician from the family who became Congress MLA from Hisar in 1938 and 1947. Lal had four sons, Partap Singh, Om Prakash Chautala, Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Chander. All joined politics except Jagdish who died at a young age. His eldest son, Partap Singh, was an MLA from Indian National Lok Dal in the 1960s.


Independence movement

Lal was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was involved in the struggle for India's independence from the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
. Both he and his elder brother, Sahib Ram, left their studies unfinished to take part in the freedom movement. For this, he was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment and sent to Hissar jail on 8 October 1930. He took part in the movement of 1932 and was kept in Sadar Delhi Thana. In 1938 he was selected delegate of
All-India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...
. In March 1938 his elder brother was elected a
Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...
in a by-election on the
Congress party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
ticket. In January 1940, Sahib Ram courted arrest as a ''
satyagrahi Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone wh ...
'' in the presence of Lal and over ten thousand people. He was fined Rs 100 and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment. Lal was arrested on 5 October 1942 and kept in jail for two years for taking part in the 1942 Quit India movement. He was released from prison in October 1943 and he negotiated parole for his elder brother. In August 1944,
Chhotu Ram Sir Chhotu Ram (born Ram Richpal; 24 November 1881 – 9 January 1945) was a prominent politician in British India's Punjab Province, an ideologue of the pre-Independent India, who belonged to the Jat community and championed the interest of o ...
, the then Revenue Minister, visited Chautala village. He, along with Lajpat Rai Alakhpura, made efforts to woo both Sahib Ram and Lal to desert Congress and join the Unionist Party. But both workers, being dedicated freedom fighters, refused to leave the Congress Party.


Post independence


Pre-1960: Punjab Assembly politics

After independence, Lal emerged as a popular farmer leader in the 1950s and started a farmers' movement, for which he was arrested along with his 500 workers. After some time, then chief minister,
Gopi Chand Bhargava Gopi Chand Bhargava (8 March 1889 – 26 December 1966) was the first Chief Minister of Punjab from 15 August 1947 to 13 April 1949, and again between 18 October 1949, to 20 June 1951, and for the third time as caretaker Chief Minister bet ...
, made an agreement and the Muzzara Act was amended. He was elected a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1952 and President of the Punjab Congress in 1956. In 1958, he was elected from
Sirsa Sirsa is a city and a municipal council in Sirsa district in the westernmost region of the Indian state of Haryana, bordering Punjab and Rajasthan. It is located in Thar desert. It is located 250 kilometres north-west of New Delhi and 260 kilom ...
.


Pre-1980: Haryana Assembly politics

He played an active and decisive role in the formation of
Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
as a separate state. In 1971 he left Congress. In 1972 vidhan sabha elections, he contested unsuccessfully against the two Congress heavyweights, Bansi Lal in
Tosham Tosham is a town and a Gram Panchayat on the foot of Tosham Hill range in Bhiwani district in the Indian state of Haryana. It has been awarded the title of "Adarsh Village". It is situated in the foothill of Tosham hill range of Aravali Mountain ...
constituency and Bhajan Lal in Adampur seat. In 1974 he successfully contested in the Rori constituency. In 1975, Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency and Lal along with all opposition leaders were jailed for 19 months. In 1977, the emergency ended and
general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
were held. He was elected on the
Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...
ticket from Bhattu Kalan and became the
Chief Minister of Haryana The Chief Minister of Haryana is the chief executive of the Indian state of Haryana. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elec ...
.


Post-1980: national and state politics

He remained a Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1982 and was a member of State assembly between 1982 and 1987. He formed
Lok Dal Lokdal or Lok Dal is an Indian political party based on agriculture policies, founded by former prime minister of India Charan Singh. See also * Girraj Kishore Mahaur, former MLA of Lok Dal * Lok Dal (Charan) * Rashtriya Lok Dal Rashtr ...
and started Nyaya Yuddh (en. battle for justice), under the banner of Haryana Sangharsh Samiti, and became hugely popular among masses. In the 1987 state elections, the alliance led by Lal won a record victory winning 85 seats in the 90 member house. Congress won the other five seats. Lal became the chief minister of Haryana for the second time. In the 1989 parliamentary election, he was simultaneously elected, both from
Sikar Sikar is a city and municipal council in the Sikar district of the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Sikar district. It is part of the Shekhawati region, which consists of Sikar, Churu and Jhunjhunu.S ...
, Rajasthan and
Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National ...
, Haryana.On December 1, 1989, VP Singh nominated Devi Lal for the post of Prime Minister in the middle house of Parliament, despite Singh himself being nominated as a pure alternative prime ministerial candidate. But the Jat leader of Haryana refused to accept the post of Prime Minister and magnanimously nominated VP Singh for the post of Prime Minister. But the refusal to give the prime ministership to Devilal's close friend Chandrasekhar, who was VP Singh's prime ministerial rival within the Janata Dal, caused surprise among many party members. Because some leaders told him that Devilal will come as the prime ministerial candidate. He was working honestly in many positions in the Congress and found many allegations of corruption against the government of Rajiv Gandhi. B. Declaring Singh as a qualified candidate for Prime Minister, Devi Lal walked out of the assembly and refused to participate in the cabinet. He became deputy prime minister of the country from 1989 to 1991 in the non-Congress governments of VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar He was elected to Rajya Sabha in August 1998. Later, his son
Om Prakash Chautala Om Prakash Chautala (born 1 January 1935) is an Indian politician from Haryana who served as a former Chief Minister of Haryana from Indian National Lok Dal and son of 6th Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal. Biography Chautala is the ...
also became the chief minister of Haryana. Lal died on 6 April 2001 at the age of 85. He was cremated at Sangarsh Sthal on the banks of the river
Yamuna The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of Ba ...
in New Delhi. "Kisan Ghat" is the samadhi of another popular leader of the farmers,
Charan Singh Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the 'champion of India's peasants.' Charan Si ...
, the fifth Prime Minister of India.


See also

* First Devi Lal ministry (1977–1979) * Second Devi Lal ministry (1987–1989) *
Aaya Ram Gaya Ram Aaya Ram Gaya Ram ( en, Ram has come, Ram has gone) expression in politics of India means the frequent floor-crossing, turncoating, switching parties and political horse trading in the legislature by the elected politicians and political p ...
* Dynastic politics of Haryana


References


External links


Official website of Indian National Lok Dal
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Devi Lal 1914 births 2001 deaths Chief Ministers of Haryana Indian Deputy Prime Ministers Indian independence activists from Haryana People from Sirsa district V. P. Singh administration Punjab, India MLAs 1952–1957 Prisoners and detainees of British India India MPs 1989–1991 Lok Sabha members from Rajasthan Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Chief ministers from Janata Party Chautala family Samata Party politicians Indian National Lok Dal politicians Chief ministers from Janata Dal Agriculture Ministers of India Samajwadi Janata Party politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Haryana Janata Party politicians Janata Dal politicians Bharatiya Lok Dal politicians Leaders of the Opposition in Punjab, India Lok Sabha members from Haryana India MPs 1980–1984