Shivraj Vishwanath Patil (born 12 October 1935) is an Indian politician who was the Minister of Home Affairs of India, from 2004 to 2008 and 10th Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996. He was Governor of the state of Punjab and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh from 2010 to 2015. Previously, he served in the

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 ...

and

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 beco ...

cabinets as Minister of Defence during the 1980s. Patil resigned from the post of Home Minister on 30 November 2008, following widespread criticism raised after terrorist attacks on Mumbai, and took moral responsibility for the security lapse that led to the attacks.

Early life

Patil was born on 12 October 1935 in the village of Chakur in the Latur district ( Marathwada region) of the then

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

of Hyderabad, now

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 ...

, India. He attended Osmania University, Hyderabad, earning a degree in Science and studied law at Bombay University. During 1967–69, he was involved in local government (Latur Municipality).

Keshavrao Sonawane Keshavrao Sonawane (1925–2006) was an Indian politician, who served four terms in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, and was a Co-operative minister in Yashwantrao Chavan's cabinet and later Vasantrao Naik's cabinet during 1962–1967. He ...

and Manikrao Sonawane helped Shivaraj Patil to get his first break to stand from Latur Constituency. Patil belongs to the Lingayat community. He married Vijaya Patil in June 1963, and has two children - a son and a daughter - with her. He is also a devout follower of

Sathya Sai Baba Sathya Sai Baba (born Ratnakaram Sathyanarayana Raju; 23 November 192624 April 2011) was an Indian guru. At the age of fourteen he claimed that he was the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, and left his home to serve his devotees. Sai Baba's b ...

In state politics

From 1973 to 1980, he was legislator of Latur Rural Constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for two terms of 1973 to 1978 and 1978 to 1980 during which time he held various positions such as Chairman of Public Undertakings Committee, Deputy Minister (Law & Judiciary, Irrigation, Protocol), Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and Speaker of the Assembly.

In central politics

In 1980, he was elected to the 7th Lok Sabha from Latur constituency. By 1999, he had won seven successive Lok Sabha elections in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. In 2004 Lok Sabha election, he lost to Bharatiya Janata Party candidate

Rupatai Patil Nilangekar Rupatai Diliprao Patil Nilangekar (born 4 June 1957) is an Indian politician who served as the Member of the Lok Sabha represent the Latur constituency, from 2004 to 2009. She is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political party. S ...

In government

Shri Shivraj Patil in his office after taking over the charge of the Union Minister of Home in New Delhi on May 24, 2004

First inducted in the

-led government in as Minister of State for Defence (1980–82), he was given independent charge of the Commerce Ministry (1982–83), from where he was shifted to Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, Electronics, Space and Ocean Development (1983–84). During 1983–86, he was vice-president of CSIR India. He also served on various committees including those on Defence, External Affairs, Finance, Salaries and Allowances of members of parliament. In the

government, he was Minister for Personnel, Defence production and later held independent charge of Civil Aviation and Tourism. He has also held a number of important positions in the party ever since

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-independ ...

took over the presidency of the party. He is largely known for introducing the

Outstanding Parliamentarian Award The Outstanding Parliamentarian Award is an award given by the Indian Parliamentary Group to an outstanding sitting Member of the Indian Parliament for overall contribution in the Indian Parliament. It was instituted in 1995 by Shivraj Patil, w ...

, India in 1992. He was the chairman of the manifesto committee of the party during the 1999 Lok Sabha election. As speaker of the Lok Sabha, he had begun or contributed in initiatives on information dissemination to members of the Parliament (through computerisation and modernisation), construction of Parliament Library Building and broadcast of Lok Sabha proceedings, including live broadcast of Question Hour of both houses of the parliament. Between 1991 and 1995, he was a member/leader of Indian parliamentary delegations to various international parliamentary conferences. He became Home Minister in 2004. A former Lok Sabha speaker, Shivraj Patil lost in the 2004 polls from Latur in

, but has still landed up the second most important position in the Union Cabinet—that of the Home Minister. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in July 2004. Widely seen as an ineffective minister, his tenure as home minister was marred by one debacle after another and he faced increasing calls for his resignation, eventually forcing it due to the mishandling in the events leading up to and after the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11, pronounced "twenty six eleven") were a series of Terrorism, terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist organisation from P ...

. Not to be forgotten also are the

2006 Malegaon bombings The 2006 Malegaon bombings took place on 8 September 2006 in Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, 290 km northeast of Mumbai. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) initially blamed the bombing ...

, at a Muslim graveyard. United States Ambassador David Mulford in an embassy cable described his removal after the Mumbai terrorist attack as inevitable and called him "inept" and "asleep on the watch". Patil is accused for not sending the Central Reserve Police Force to Nandigram, even after repeated requests by the West Bengal government, to restore law and order in the area and the events resulted in police firing and killing of men and women in Nandigram. Patil's name was considered a likely candidate in

2007 presidential election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

. However, after the Left opposed his candidacy, Sonia Gandhi proposed Pratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan, as the presidential candidate. Shivraj Patil was later considered a possible candidate for the post of Vice-President of India. On 30 November 2008, just four days after Bombay blasts, Patil resigned from his position of Home Minister in Union Cabinet taking moral responsibility for the security lapse that led to the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Post 26/11, Shivraj Patil was made the Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator from 2010 to 2015

Controversies

Shivraj Patil is referred to as Nero of India. He was reported to have been changing clothes for public appearances while the country was under a terror attack. His actions are compared to Nero who played his fiddle while the city burned as Patil focused on changing his clothes while the country was witnessing a terror attack. He is also criticized to have omitted this episode from his autobiography.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patil, Shivraj V. 1935 births Living people People from Latur district Osmania University alumni India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1989–1991 India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1998–1999 India MPs 1999–2004 Speakers of the Lok Sabha Followers of Sathya Sai Baba Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra Maharashtra MLAs 1972–1978 Maharashtra MLAs 1978–1980 Governors of Punjab, India Governors of Rajasthan Ministers of Internal Affairs of India Speakers of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra Administrators of Chandigarh People from Marathwada Civil aviation ministers of India Commerce and Industry Ministers of India