Arun Kumar Nehru (24 April 1944 – 25 July 2013) was an Indian politician and columnist. He was member of the

9th Lok Sabha List of Members of the 9th Lok Sabha (2 December 1989 – 13 March 1991) elections in 22–26 November 1989. The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the Parliament of India. Twelve sitting members from Rajya Sabha were electe ...

from

Bilhaur Bilhaur is a town and a municipal board in Kanpur Nagar district which is situated in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is 56 km from Kanpur and situated where the Isan River joins the River Ganges. Araul is nearest village of Bilhau ...

as a

Janata Dal Janata Dal (“People’s Party”) was an List of political parties in India, 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 ...

leader. Earlier, he was member of the

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and

8th Lok Sabha The 8th Lok Sabha ran from 31 December 1984 to 27 November 1989. Politicians were elected in December 1984, taking office by the end of the month. The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house in the bicameral Parliament of India. 9 s ...

s from

Rae Bareli Raebareli is a city in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Raebareli district and a part of Lucknow Division. The city is situated on the banks of the Sai river, southeast of Lucknow. It possesses many a ...

on an

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 ...

ticket.

Personal life

Arun Nehru was born on 24 April 1944. His father was Anand Kumar Nehru, a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He studied at La Martinière Boys College,

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

, and

Lucknow Christian College Lucknow Christian College is a graduate and post-graduate college located in Golaganj, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is affiliated with the University of Lucknow. Overview Lucknow Christian College was established in 1862. It is an Inst ...

. He was married in 1967 to Subhadra and had two daughters. He has 3 grandsons. Akhil Madan, Yash Madan and Vickram Tikkoo. He died on 25 July 2013 in

Gurgaon Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

Career

He worked as a businessman for 17 years before entering into politics. He was president of the paint firm Jenson and Nicholson at the time when 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 ...

persuaded him to change career. However, he rose to prominence after Sanjay Gandhi's death. The business community regarded him as a decisive person and even termed him as "one-window clearance". When Rajiv Gandhi forayed into politics in 1981, Nehru became his key advisor. As a representative of the

(INC), Nehru was a member of Parliament in the 7th Lok Sabha (1980–84) and 8th Lok Sabha (1984-89) from Rae Bareli. He was

Union Minister of State The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

for Energy (December 1984—September 1985,) and for

Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

(September 1985—October 1986) in 10th ministry of India. Later, he left the INC for

and was elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from Bilhaur in 1989, where he was Union Minister for Commerce and Tourism (December–November 1990). He was also a member of member of various committees - Railway Convention Committee (1980–84), Consultative Committee, External Affairs and Science and Technology, 7th Lok Sabha; Member, Consultative Committee, External Affairs (1987–89)

Controversies

Role in 1984 Anti-Sikh riots

As originally reported by

The Caravan ''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture. History In 1940, Vishwa Nath launched ''Caravan'' as the first magazine from the Delhi Press; it went on to establish its ...

Magazine, Arun Nehru reportedly played a pivotal role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The riots broke out after the

Assassination of Indira Gandhi Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, an I ...

. According to then petroleum secretary Avtar Singh Gill, Rajiv Gandhi 's "errand boy",

Lalit Suri Lalit Suri was an Indian politician. He was a Member of Parliament, representing Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha the upper house of India's Parliament as an Independent politician An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not ...

informed him at the eve of the massacre that Arun Nehru gave "clearance" for the killings in Delhi.. His strategy was to "catch Sikh youth, fling a tyre over their heads, douse them with kerosene and set them on fire.". He further retorted, "This will calm the anger of the Hindus".

Czech pistol case

During his tenure as minister in the Home department in 1985–86, he was allegedly involved in the Czech pistol case, where a deal with the Czechoslovakian firm Merkuria Foreign Trade Corp. had resulted in a loss of around . A 20-year investigation by the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governmen ...

(CBI) led to submission of a report in 2007. This found no incriminating evidence. The trial court, however, rejected the CBI report and found Nehru's involvement enough to continue the proceedings. In March 2013, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...

ed those proceedings, based on the report.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nehru, Arun 1944 births 2013 deaths Journalists from Uttar Pradesh Nehru–Gandhi family Politicians from Lucknow India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1989–1991 Indian National Congress politicians from Uttar Pradesh Janata Dal politicians Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh People from Kanpur Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Uttar Pradesh Commerce and Industry Ministers of India