Era Sezhiyan (28 April 1923 – 6 June 2017) or Rajagopal Seziyan was an Indian writer and politician. His original name was R.Srinivasan and changed his name to fall in line with other DMK leaders who opted for Tamil names instead of Sanskritised forms. He was known for having rediscovered and published 'Shah Commission Report' which was reported destroyed by

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

Government

Personal life

Seziyan was born to V. S. Rajagopal on 28 April 1923. He completed his master's before entering politics. He married Dr. Prema Seziyan.

Public life

Seziyan was a well-known writer in Tamil and has written numerous short stories and one-act plays. He joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at an early age. In 1962, he stood for election from Perambalur Lok Sabha constituency and was elected to the Lok Sabha or lower house of the Indian Parliament. He served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Perambalur from 1962 to 1967. In the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, Sezhiyan defeated two-time Congress MP C. R. Pattabhiraman from

Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headq ...

. He was brother of Navalar V.R. Nedunchezian and both of them were founder members of DMK. Later, attracted to

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...

's ideologies, he joined 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 ...

. He represented the Janata Party in Parliament as a Rajya Sabha member between 1978 and 1984. In 2001, he retired from active politics.

Editing Shah Commission report

The atrocities committed during Emergency 1975 were enquired and published in

Shah Commission Shah Commission was a commission of inquiry appointed by Government of India in 1977 to inquire into all the excesses committed in the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77). It was headed by Justice J.C. Shah, a former chief Justice of India. Background ...

Report during 1980 but was suppressed by next draconian Government. It was believed that all copies of Shah Commission report were either destroyed or disappeared and after three decades, Era Sezhiyan traced a copy of the report and published with editorial notes during 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seziyan, Era 1923 births 2017 deaths Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu People from Thanjavur district India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 People from Perambalur district India MPs 1962–1967