Shanta Vasisht (born ca. 1926) is an Indian politician. During the 1950s and 1960s she served as minister in the

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

state government and as a member of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

Student years

Vasisht studied law at the

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

. Her father, L.D. Vasisht, served as Chief Administrative Officer of the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. During her student years she was active in the

branch 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 worked with the Kingsway Refugee Committee. In 1950 she studied social work at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, through a Foreign Student scholarship of the

Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arch ...

sorority.
Woman Lawyer Plans Return to Native India
', ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' – 22 June 1950

Delhi Assembly

Upon her return to India, Vasisht contested the 1952 Delhi Legislative Assembly election. Vasisht stood as the Congress Party candidate in the Kotla Feroze Shah constituency. She won the seat, defeating V.P. Joshi of the

Bharatiya Jan Sangh The Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, full name: Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh; ) ( ISO 15919: '' Akhila Bhāratīya Jana Saṅgha '' ) was an Indian right wing political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the po ...

. In total Vasisht obtained 4,646 votes (56.26% of the votes in the constituency).Election Commission of India.
STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1951 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF DELHI
' In 1953 she was appointed by the

Chief Minister of Delhi The chief minister of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is the head of government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. According to the Constitution of India, the lieutenant governor is the National Capital Territory of Delhi's ''de ...

Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Chaudhary Brahm Prakash Yadav (1918–1993) was an Indian politician, the first Chief Minister of Delhi, also Called as sher-e-delhi, and a freedom fighter who played an important role in the individual Satyagraha Movement launched by Mahatma ...

as Deputy Minister for Education in the Delhi State government.Puri, Yogesh.
Party Politics in the Nehru Era: A Study of Congress in Delhi
'. New Delhi, India: National Book Organisation, 1993. p. 102 Her nomination was criticised by a minority faction inside the Congress Legislature Party in Delhi, who claimed that the Chief Minister shouldn't have nominated deputy ministers without consulting the assembly members of the party. Vasisht took part in the reviving of the Delhi Library Association in 1954, and served as longest president of the association.

Rajya Sabha

Vasisht was elected to the

(the upper house of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

) in 1960. Her term lasted from 3 April 1960 to 2 April 1966, under the governments of

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...

and

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 ...

Later period

In 2008 Vasisht released the book ''Nehru to Iraq'', which details her experiences in the struggle for Indian Independence.''The Tribune''.
Requiem to a bygone era
' As of 2013, Vasisht resided in the

Sarvodaya Enclave {{Infobox settlement , name = Sarvodaya Enclave , native_name = , native_name_lang = , other_name = , nickname = , settlement_type = Neighborhood of Delhi , ima ...

.Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi.
ELECTORAL ROLL 2013, STATE- (U05) DELHI
''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasisht, Shanta 1920s births Living people Indian National Congress politicians Delhi MLAs 1952–1956 Rajya Sabha members from Delhi Women members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly State cabinet ministers of Delhi 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Women state cabinet ministers of India 20th-century Indian women lawyers Women members of the Rajya Sabha