Sikander Bakht (24 August 1918 – 23 February 2004) was an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who served as the 15th governor of Kerala from 2002 until his death. He was elected as the Vice President of the BJP, served as its leader in the Rajya Sabha, and as a cabinet minister in the

NDA NDA may stand for: Military * National Defence Academy (India), a military academy in India * National Defence Act, legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military * National Defense Academy of Japan, a military academy in Japan * Nig ...

government headed by

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

. In 2000, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour of the Government of India.

Early life

Sikander Bakht was born in Quresh Nagar in Delhi, India in 1918. He attended the

Anglo Arabic Senior Secondary School, Delhi The Anglo Arabic Senior Secondary School or more commonly, Anglo Arabic School, is a co-educational government aided school in New Delhi, India. The school is managed by Delhi Education Society. The Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia Najma A ...

and completed his Bachelor of Science from the Anglo-Arabic College (now known as Zakir Husain College) in Delhi. During his school and college days he was a keen hockey player and represented Delhi University and Delhi in various tournaments. He also played and captained the Independents Hockey Club. He once said he is member of BJP and always maintained that India is land of secularism and supported the ethos of India.

Political career

In 1952 Bakht was elected to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as a Congress candidate. In 1968 he was elected as the Chairman of Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking. In 1969 the Congress party split and Bakht stayed with Congress (Organisation). Bakht was then elected to The Metropolitan Council of Delhi as a Congress (O) candidate. On 25 June 1975 Emergency was declared by Prime Minister

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 ...

, Bakht along with other opposition leaders was imprisoned on 25 June 1975. He was lodged in the Rohtak Jail until his release in December 1976. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered General Elections in March 1977. As soon as the opposition leaders were released, they merged all opposition parties to form The Janta Party. In March 1977 Bakht was elected to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian Parliament) as a Janata Party candidate, from Chandni Chowk in New Delhi. Morarji Desai was appointed Prime Minister and he appointed Bakht as a Cabinet Minister for Works, Housing, Supply and Rehabilitation. He served in this capacity till July 1979. In 1980 the Janta Party split and Bakht opted to be with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was appointed General Secretary of BJP. In 1984 he was made the Vice President of BJP. In 1990 Bakht was elected to the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament) from Madhya Pradesh. In 1992 he became the Leader of Opposition in the ''Rajya Sabha''. (The Leader of Opposition is equivalent to Cabinet Minister's post.) On 10 April 1996 he was reelected from Madhya Pradesh to the ''Rajya Sabha''. In May 1996,

offered Bakht the post of Minister of Urban Affairs when he formed his government. Bakht, however, demanded a higher post, and on 24 May he was given the additional post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Vajpayee Government lasted only 13 days. Bakht was Foreign Minister for little more than a week, as he was forced to resign when Vajpayee's government collapsed on 1 June 1996. After the collapse of the Vajpayee government, Bakht became the Leader of the Opposition in the ''Rajya Sabha'' once again. In 1998 Vajpayee was again appointed Prime Minister and Bakht was appointed Industry Minister, a post he held until 2002. In addition, he was appointed the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha. After serving an entire term as Industries Minister, Bakht retired from active politics and was appointed the Governor of Kerala in 2002. He was the first BJP leader ever to be appointed the governor of Kerala.

Awards

In 2000 Bakht was awarded the '' Padma Vibhushan''. This is the second highest Indian civilian award. The four other persons from the BJP who have been awarded the ''Padma Vibhushan'' are

, Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. Atal Bihari Vajpayee has since been awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India.

Death

Bakht finished his term in Rajya Sabha on 9 April 2002. 9 days later, he was sworn in as Governor of Kerala, succeeding Sukhdev Singh Kang. At the age of , he was the oldest Governor of Kerala state. He was highly popular and served in this post until his death. Bakht died in the

Medical College Hospital The Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram (also known as Thiruvananthapuram Medical College or Trivandrum Medical College) is in Thiruvananthapuram (the capital of Kerala), India. Founded in 1951, it was inaugurated by Prime Minister J ...

in Kerala's capital city Thiruvananthapuram on 23 February 2004, from complications of intestinal surgery which was performed on 19 February. He was the first Governor of Kerala who died in office. He was replaced two days later by Karnataka governor

T. N. Chaturvedi Tirlok Nath Chaturvedi''’ (12 January 1928-5 January 2020), was a member of the 1950 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He held several important positions in the Government of Rajasthan and the Government of India including Co ...

. There was concern, particularly among BJP members, that Bakht might have died because of medical negligence, but nothing was proven. Chief Minister

A. K. Antony Arackaparambil Kurien Antony (born 28 December 1940) is an Indian politician and attorney who was the 23rd Defence Minister of India. He was Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, from Kerala from 1985 to 1995 and again from 2005 to 2022. He ...

, at the time of Sikander Bakht's death, had to give into popular demand to order an inquiry to examine if there was any lapse on part of doctors or any other motive. http://archive.thepeninsulaqatar.com/component/content/article/348-indiaarchiverest/38734.html The President of India,

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied phy ...

, said "In his death we have lost a prominent public personality and a statesman." Prime Minister Vajpayee said "Mr. Bakht was a freedom-fighter. He struggled for democracy and the nationalist cause with courage and conviction. He rendered distinguished service as a member of my Cabinet for sometime."

References

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