Ramrao Wamanrao Adik (24 December 1928 – 30 August 2007) was a

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and a notable

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

from

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. He was a member of the

Indian National Congress 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 ...

and the

deputy chief minister of Maharashtra The Deputy Chief Minister Of Maharashtra is the deputy head of the executive branch of the Government of Maharashtra and the second highest ranking minister of the Council of Ministers. List of deputy chief ministers See also *List of govern ...

from 1984 to 1987. He died on 30 August 2007 in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

following a brief illness. His younger brother,

Govindrao Adik Govindrao Wamanrao Adik (4 January 1939 – 7 June 2015 ) was an Indian politician. He was a member of the Nationalist Congress Party and served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He began his political career as a Member of the L ...

, was 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 ...

and a former Cabinet minister.

Early childhood

Born in "Khanapur" village, of Shrirampur Taluka, in Ahmednagar District of

on 24 December 1928, Ramrao spent most of his childhood on the

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

farm in "Khanapur" helping his father Wamanrao Adik. In a household of five siblings, Ramrao was the eldest and the most ambitious. He obtained his law degree at ILS College Pune in 1955 after which he went on to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to become a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

. After returning from England, he practiced civil law in the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

, where he quickly rose through the ranks as a

and was elevated to the position of an advocate general. Since then his name became quite famous among political circles of

Political career

After being appreciated as a skilled lawyer by the then

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

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 ...

, he was asked to join the

. Ramrao Adik saw this as a good platform to serve the people of Maharashtra. In his pursuit for the welfare of the people of Maharashtra, he had also set up a small organization with a regional mandate for

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

speaking people called Maharashtra Hitwardhini, which was later to be taken over by

Bal Thackeray Bal Thackeray (; 23 January 1926 – 17 November 2012), also known as Balasaheb Thackeray, was an Indian politician who founded the Shiv Sena, a right-wing pro-Marathi and Hindu nationalist party active mainly in the state of Maharashtra. ...

and become the present day

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...

. Ramrao Adik also addressed several public rally's in support of

in its initial phases. Ramrao Adik had served as an Advocate General of

, a Law Minister, and in a few years he would become the

in 1984. He held several key portfolios, including

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

Urban Development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

Housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

, Industry, and

Revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

, in the state cabinet under various chief ministers in the following years. His most successful tenure was in 1991, when he served as a

finance minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

and drafted a surplus budget of Rupees 272 Crore/approx US$60 million, for the state of

. His name emerges amongst the longest-serving

Cabinet ministers A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countries ...

in the State of Maharashtra, due to his neutral standpoints and diligent administration.

Adik Adik is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Govindrao Adik (1939–2015), Indian politician *Ramrao Adik Ramrao Wamanrao Adik (24 December 1928 – 30 August 2007) was a Maratha politician and a notable lawyer from Maharasht ...

had an interest in the field of education with a university in his name. He preferred to keep himself busy as a lawyer until his last years of life. "''Being a Lawyer is what I love when I am not a politician''" he quoted when asked about his preference of politics over legal practice by a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the

. The

president of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

Shrimati Shrimati or Shreemati ( sa, श्रीमती, translit=Śrīmatī), abbreviated Smt., is a widely accepted Indian honorific (akin to Ms. in English) used when referring to an adult woman in some Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindi, ...

Pratibha Patil Prathibha DeviSingh Patil (born 19 December 1934) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th president of India spanning from 2007 to 2012. She is the first woman to become the president of India. A member of the Indian National ...

condoled his death and expressed grief over the loss of a noted

statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

on his death. He was also honored with a full court reference by the

for his contribution to the field of law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adik, Ramrao 1928 births 2007 deaths Deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra Advocates General for Indian states People from Shrirampur Marathi politicians Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Maharashtra Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian lawyers Indian National Congress (U) politicians