Vidya Charan Shukla (2 August 1929 – 11 June 2013) was an Indian politician whose political career spanned six decades. He was predominantly a member 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 E ...

, but also had spells in Jan Morcha,

Janata Dal Janata Dal (“People’s Party”) was an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha united on 11 October 1988 on the birth annive ...

Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) (SJP(R)), also called as Janata Dal (Socialist) is an Indian political party founded by Chandra Shekhar, 8th Prime Minister of India in 1990–91, and led by him until his death on 8 July 2007. Chandra Shekhar ...

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

and

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

. He was known as a close associate of Indira Gandhi.

Personal life

Shukla was born on 2 August 1929 in

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Ch ...

. His father

Ravishankar Shukla Ravishankar Shukla (2 August 1877 — 31 December 1956) was a leader of the Indian National Congress, Indian independence movement activist, the Premier of the Central Provinces and Berar from 27 April 1946 to 25 January 1950, first Chief Minist ...

was a lawyer, an

politician from Central Provinces and Berar and the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. His older brother, Shyama Charan Shukla, was also an INC politician and served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. He had seven other siblings. Vidya Charan Shukla graduated from

Morris College, Nagpur Vasantrao Naik Government Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (VNGIASS), in Nagpur, India, established in 1885 as Morris College, is one of the oldest colleges in the country. It takes its name from the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the ...

in 1951. He started Allwyn Cooper Pvt Ltd, which organized big-game safari and photo expeditions of wildlife in the forests of central India.

Political career

In the 1957 general elections, he was elected as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

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-p ...

, on a

ticket from Balodabazar constituency. He became one of the youngest MPs in the

2nd Lok Sabha The Second Lok Sabha (5 April 1957 – 31 March 1962) was elected after the 1957 Indian general election. The 2nd Lok Sabha lasted its full tenure of five years till 1962. 15 sitting members from Rajya Sabha were elected to 2nd Lok Sabha after ...

. Subsequently, he won Lok Sabha elections from

Mahasamund Mahasamund City is a city in Mahasamund District in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh.It is situated on the Mumbai-Kolkata and Raipur-Vishakhaptnam National Highways. It is one of the largest (ranked 13th) and most important cities in the State ...

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

, 1964 (bypoll),

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

, 1980,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

; and from

in 1971 and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

. He lost from Raipur in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

; and from Mahasamund in 2004. He was elected to Lok Sabha a total of 9 times. When Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966, he was chosen as a Minister in her Cabinet. He was Minister of State under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from 1967 to 1977 including as Minister of State with Independent Charge of Information and Broadcasting. Despite a versatile career, Shukla's role as Information and Broadcasting Minister during the

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

period had got him some odium as propagandist for Indira Gandhi’s government. His ministry attracted adverse attention for the media censor policy during that period when Freedom of speech was under attack. The Justice Shah Commission of Inquiry which went into the Emergency excesses, was stunned when V. C. Shukla owned entire responsibility for the functioning of his ministry. He had banned Kishore Kumar's songs on

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

because Kishore Kumar had refused to sing at an Indira Gandhi rally. He was known for his iron-fist handling of the media during the Emergency.He was also a minister in Rajiv Gandhi lead Congress government, but left and joined the revolt against Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-1980s and was one of the founders of Jan Morcha along with

Arun Nehru Arun Kumar Nehru (24 April 1944 – 25 July 2013) was an Indian politician and columnist. He was member of the 9th Lok Sabha from Bilhaur as a Janata Dal leader. Earlier, he was member of the 7th and 8th Lok Sabhas from Rae Bareli on an In ...

, V.P. Singh and

Arif Mohammad Khan Arif Mohammad Khan (born 18 November 1951) is an Indian politician representing the BJP. He currently serving as the Governor of Kerala & the Chancellor of all State Universities in Kerala. He is a former Union Minister. He has held several po ...

. He later became a minister in the National Front government of 1989-90 under V.P. Singh and switched allegiance to join the subsequent Chandrasekhar government and served as Minister for External Affairs of India during 1990-91 under Prime Minister

Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar ( 17 April 1927 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with ...

, during the

as a member of

. He again returned to Congress Party and also served as Cabinet Minister under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao during 1991-96 as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of Irrigation. in 2003 he shifted to

and headed the Chhattisgarh Unit of NCP. However, he changed his political allegiance and joined

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

towards end of 2003, but in 2004 Lok Sabha elections he himself lost on the BJP ticket from

against Ajit Jogi of INC. After the defeat he resigned from BJP in 2004. From 2004 he was in a political state of limbo and was trying to return to Congress Party until finally in 2007 when Sonia Gandhi, the Congress leader, approved his return to the Congress party. He was in Congress from 2007 until his death in 2013

Death

Vidya Charan Shukla was part of Congress Party's ''Parivartan Yatra'' in Chhattisgarh, when he was injured in Naxal attack on 25 May 2013. He was later moved to

Medanta Global Health Limited, d/b/a Medanta, is an Indian hospital chain based in Gurgaon, India. The chain was started in 2009 by cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan and Sunil Sachdeva. History In 2004, cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan began working on Me ...

at Gurgaon, where he succumbed to his injuries on 11 June 2013. President

Pranab Mukherjee Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the India ...

in his condolence message said Vidya Charan Shukla was a veteran Parliamentarian, able administrator and an outstanding statesman.

Shekhar Dutt Shekhar Dutt was the governor of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Earlier he had served on various bureaucratic posts including, as an IAS officer, as Secretary in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. Career Dutt belongs to the 19 ...

, the Chhattisgarh Governor said his death marks the end of an era. Several leaders including then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi,

Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a longtime memb ...

and others, cutting across party lines paid tribute to him and many national leaders were present at his last rites. The newly elected Chhattisgarh government has set up an SIT to probe into the incident which caused his death. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukla, Vidya Charan 1929 births 2013 deaths Ministers for Information and Broadcasting of India Ministers for External Affairs of India Assassinated Indian politicians People murdered in Chhattisgarh Indian murder victims Terrorism victims in India Deaths by firearm in India People from Raipur, Chhattisgarh India MPs 1957–1962 India MPs 1962–1967 India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1989–1991 India MPs 1991–1996 Indian National Congress politicians from Chhattisgarh Lok Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh People of the Emergency (India) Janata Dal politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Chhattisgarh V. P. Singh administration Chandra Shekhar administration Rao administration Indira Gandhi administration Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Chhattisgarh Lok Sabha members from Chhattisgarh Samajwadi Janata Party politicians Politicians from Raipur Indian sports executives and administrators

Personal life

Political career

Death

See also

References