Sarat Kumar Kar (5 September 1939 – 12 October 2020) was a politician and writer from

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sc ...

, India. He was a member of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) political party.

Biography

He was a member of the

6th Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India. The 6th Lok Sabha, which ran from 23 March 1977 to 22 August 1979 was elected in February and March 1977. 11 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 6t ...

(1977–80) and was elected three times (2000–04, 1990–95 and 1971–74) to the

Odisha Legislative Assembly The Odisha Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Odisha state in India. The seat of the Legislative Assembly is at Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state. The Legislative Assembly comprises 147 Members of Legislative ...

from

Mahanga Mahanga is a village and Community Development Block in Indian state of Odisha. Mahanga police station serves the village. Mahanga is a part of the Mahanga (Vidhan Sabha constituency) of the Odisha Legislative Assembly The Odisha Legis ...

. Kar became the Minister for Education and Culture in 1971 in the

Bishwanath Das Bishwanath Das (8 March 1889 – 2 June 1984) was a politician, lawyer and philanthropist from India. He was the prime minister of Odisha Province of British India 1937–39, the governor of Uttar Pradesh 1962–67 and later the chief minister ...

led coalition Government. He was probably the youngest Cabinet Minister in Odisha's political history and the record remains intact till today. He was elected as a Janata Party (Lok Dal) MP in 1977 from Cuttack after defeating Congress stalwart and the then sitting Union Minister, Shri J.B.Patnaik. He was the speaker of the Twelfth Assembly from 10 March 2000 to 21 May 2004. He joined politics in 1964 after completing his master's degree in Political Science from the prestigious Allahabad University. During his Allahabad University days, he had the opportunity to interact with Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri who inspired him to join politics. Shri Kar participated in the political meetings of Shri Shastri and became a member of the AICC. Shri Shastri asked him to meet Shri Biju Patnaik after returning to Odisha. Shri Kar met Shri Biju Patnaik. Biju babu took a liking for him and Shri Kar remained his close confidant till Biju babu's death. Shri Kar wrote four poetry books (Druta Bilambita, Manthan, Romanthan and Ananya), one long fiction (Samayara Jete Dheu), one spiritual book and hundreds of articles in newspapers and magazines on literary, social, spiritual and political topics in

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

. He was a prolific orator on politics and culture. A great devotee of Lord Jagannath, he gave commentary on the Lord's Car Festival ("Rath Yatra") on All India Radio, Doordarshan and private TV channels for the last 45 years. His spouse, Smt. Anima Mishra Kar, is a retired Professor in English. She is an accomplished singer and was an "A" Grade artist for All India Radio, Cuttack through the 1960s to the 1990s. His elder son, Shri Suman Kar is a lecturer in English in Bhubaneswar. His younger son, Shri Sobhan Kar, is an Indian Revenue Service officer and works for the Government of India at New Delhi. Shri Kar died on 12 October 2020, from COVID-19 during the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest nu ...

, aged 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kar, Sarat Kumar 1939 births 2020 deaths India MPs 1977–1979 Biju Janata Dal politicians Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India Odisha MLAs 1971–1973 Odisha MLAs 1990–1995 Odisha MLAs 2000–2004 Speakers of the Odisha Legislative Assembly Janata Party politicians Janata Dal politicians Utkal Congress politicians People from Cuttack district Indian National Congress politicians from Odisha Lok Dal politicians