Satish C. Sharma (11 October 1947 – 17 February 2021) was an Indian politician. He represented 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 ...

party, and was a former member of the

Union Cabinet The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

in the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. Sharma's political career was boosted by his closeness to both

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to bec ...

, and after his assassination, his wife and the de facto political power center of the Congress party,

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (''née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independe ...

. He held seats in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-pas ...

at the behest of both the Nehru-Gandhi family and the electorate.

Personal life

Satish Sharma was born on 11 October 1947 in

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the headquarters of the South Central Railway ...

, a city in the Indian state

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and ...

. He was educated in Col. Brown Cambridge School in Dehra Dun and was later trained as a pilot in Kansas City, Missouri. He was married to Sterre Sharma who founded and runs the Tribal jewellery museum at

Mangar Bani Mangar Bani, a paleolithic archaeological site and sacred grove hill forest next to the Mangar village on Delhi-Haryana border, is in the South Delhi Ridge of Aravalli mountain range in Faridabad tehsil of Faridabad district in the Indian stat ...

on the Delhi-Haryana which is a

sacred grove Sacred groves or sacred woods are groves of trees and have special religious importance within a particular culture. Sacred groves feature in various cultures throughout the world. They were important features of the mythological landscape and ...

in Faridabad district.Mangar, a hidden jewel near Delhi
The Hindu BusinessLine, 19 September 2017.Best Places to Visit Mangar, Faridabad, Mangar Tourist Places
/ref> He died on 17 February 2021 in Goa.

Political career

In 1991 he was elected to the

in a by-poll from Rajiv Gandhi's constituency of

Amethi Amethi is a city situated in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is a major town of the Amethi district, in the Faizabad division. The Hanumangarhi temple is located in the heart of the town. Amethi was the 72 nd district of Uttar Pradesh w ...

following the latter's assassination. From January 1993 until December 1996 he was Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Amethi again in 1996, and after losing in Amethi in 1998, he was elected again to Lok Sabha from Raebareli in 1999. In October 2021, Sharma was named in the

Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million Data breach, leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore a ...

. These documents showed that Sharma owned property and had control of multiple international trusts, starting in 1995, which were not declared to the Election Commission. According to Sharma's wife Sterre Sharma, her husband had no offshore accounts, and the property was liquidated to pay taxes.

Parliamentary Committees

* Member, Committee on Transport and Tourism (1999 – 2000) * Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Civil Aviation (October 2004 – May 2009 and August 2009 – July 2010) * Member, Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture (August 2009 – May 2014) * Member, Committee on Urban Development (September 2014 – 2021)

References

External links

Indian-express.com

Business-standard.com

Commoncauseindia.org

Timesofindia.indiatimes.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Satish Indian National Congress politicians Politicians from Hyderabad, India India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1999–2004 Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh Sharma Satish Sharma Satish 1947 births 2021 deaths Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh People from Amethi district Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministers of India Politicians from Secunderabad People named in the Pandora Papers