Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and a minister in the Government of India. He was 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 ...

party. Scindia was the son of

Jiwajirao Scindia Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia KStJ (26 June 1916 – 16 July 1961) was an Indian prince and government official. In the British Raj, he was the ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Gwalior in central India from 1925 until 1947. After ...

, the last ruling

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

of the

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

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

. Upon the death of his father in 1961, and under terms agreed to during the

political integration of India After the Indian independence in 1947, the dominion of India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other under the suzerainty of the British Crown, with control over their internal affairs remainin ...

, Scindia succeeded to a

privy purse The Privy Purse is the British Sovereign's private income, mostly from the Duchy of Lancaster. This amounted to £20.1 million in net income for the year to 31 March 2018. Overview The Duchy is a landed estate of approximately 46,000 acres (200 ...

, certain privileges, and the use of the title "Maharaja of Gwalior," which lasted until 1971, whereupon all were abolished by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India.

Early life

Scindia was born in a Royal Maratha family, to the last ruling Maharaja of

Jivajirao Scindia Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia KStJ (26 June 1916 – 16 July 1961) was an Indian prince and government official. In the British Raj, he was the ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Gwalior in central India from 1925 until 1947. After ...

. He underwent his schooling in

Scindia School The Scindia School is an Indian boarding school for boys, established in year 1897, and situated in the historic Gwalior Fort, in the city of Gwalior. It was originally started exclusively for royals and nobles of Indian princely states, parti ...

, Gwalior and thereafter went for higher studies in

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at ...

. On his return from the UK, Scindia followed the political tradition set by his mother

Vijaya Raje Scindia Vijaya Raje Scindia (12 October 1919 – 25 January 2001), born Lekha Divyeshwari Devi and known popularly as the Rajmata of Gwalior, was a prominent Indian political personality. In the days of the British Raj, as consort of the last ruling Ma ...

by joining politics. He was elected to 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 ...

in 1971 from the Guna constituency on a

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, full name: Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh; ) ( ISO 15919: '' Akhila Bhāratīya Jana Saṅgha '' ) was an Indian right wing political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the po ...

ticket.

Career

Electoral victories

A nine-term member of the

, Madhavrao Scindia never lost an election since 1971, when he won for the first time from Guna constituency at the age of 26. He contested the election on the ticket of

Bharatiya Jan Sangh The Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, full name: Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh; ) ( ISO 15919: '' Akhila Bhāratīya Jana Saṅgha '' ) was an Indian right wing political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the po ...

(the precursor of the present day

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

), which his family had long patronised. When 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 ...

, he fled the country into self-imposed exile in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. After he returned to India , he resigned from the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. He contested from Guna constituency as an independent candidate and won the seat a second time in spite of the wave in favour of the

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

. In the 1980 election, he switched allegiance to

and won from Guna a third time. In 1984, he was nominated as the Congress party's candidate from

in a last-minute manoeuvre to defeat the

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 ...

, and won by a massive margin. After that Scindia contested from either Gwalior or Guna and won on each occasion. Madhavrao Scindia 2005 stamp of India

Ministerial appointments

The 1984 election brought Scindia his first experience as a minister. He made his mark as an excellent administrator during his stint as Railways Minister (22 October 1986 – 1 December 1989) in the

Rajiv Gandhi Ministry Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984. Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet included 7 Agriculturists, 15 Lawyers, 4 Journalists and 3 former Princely state rulers. Cabinet ;Key * Died in office * Resigned ...

. Prime Ministers

P. V. Narasimha Rao Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to Indi ...

made him Minister for Civil Aviation. He faced a turbulent period of agitation by the staff of the domestic carrier,

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after m ...

, and as part of a strategy of disciplining the workforce, he leased a number of aircraft from Russia. Early in 1992 one of these aircraft crashed, though without any loss of life, and Scindia promptly submitted his resignation. Although not known to be too finicky about such notions as ministerial accountability, the prime minister accepted his resignation. Scindia was later reinducted into the Cabinet in 1995 as Minister for Human Resource Development. Scindia is also credited with setting up the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM) at Gwalior as an institution of repute, which got renamed after Atal Bihari Vajpayee as ABV-IIITM.

Opposition Years

After the defeat of the Indian National Congress in the

1989 Indian general election General elections were held in India on 22 and 26 November 1989 to elect the members of the 9th Lok Sabha. The incumbent Indian National Congress government under the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi lost its mandate, even though it was still the ...

, Scindia became a prominent member of the opposition. In 1990, after the fall of the

V. P. Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008), shortened to V. P. Singh, was an Indian politician who was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He is India's only prime minister to ...

government, the Congress provided external support to the

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 ...

government of

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 ...

. Scindia was appointed president of the Board for Cricket in India (BCCI), a post he held until his 3-year term expired in 1993.

Rebellion and return

In 1996, he left the Congress party after being accused of bribery by prime minister PV Narasimha Rao. He founded the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress (MPVC), and along with Arjun Singh and other Congress dissidents formed the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...

government at the Centre. Scindia himself opted to stay out of the cabinet. In 1998, just before the

Lok Sabha elections 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-past- ...

he merged the MPVC into the Congress party. He won the 1998 Lok Sabha election from Guna.

Death

Madhavrao Scindia died at the age of 56, in a plane crash in Motta village, which is on the outskirts of

Mainpuri district Mainpuri district is one of the districts in the Agra division of Uttar Pradesh, India. Mainpuri town is the district headquarters. It consists of six tehsils, namely Mainpuri, Bhongaon, Karhal, Kishni, Kurawali and Ghiror. Mainpuri fo ...

of Uttar Pradesh, on 30 September 2001. The plane caught fire when it was above Bhainsrauli village. Being viewed as a future prime ministerial candidate before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections in the aftermath of the controversy over

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-independen ...

's foreign origin, was on his way to address a rally in Kanpur. All eight people on board the private plane ( Beechcraft King Air C90) died in the crash. This included his personal secretary Rupinder Singh, journalists Sanjeev Sinha (

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...

), Anju Sharma (

The Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyal ...

), Gopal Bisht, Ranjan Jha (

Aaj Tak ''Aaj Tak'' () is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by TV Today Network, part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate Living Media group (India Today Group) Aaj Tak HD On 14 December 2018, Aaj Tak launched India's first Hindi h ...

), pilot Ray Gautam and co-pilot Ritu Malik. The bodies were charred beyond recognition and taken by road to

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra ...

, from where a special

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct ...

aircraft, sent by Prime Minister

, brought the remains to

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

. The remains of Madhavrao Scindia were identified by his family, with the goddess

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around c ...

locket that he always used to wear. The autopsies were conducted and other legal formalities completed at the

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, also known as AIIMS Delhi, is a public medical research university and hospital in New Delhi, India. The institute is governed by the AIIMS Act, 1956 and operates autonomously under the Mini ...

by Professor T D Dogra. His son

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (born 1 January 1971) is an Indian politician who serves as the Minister of Civil Aviation, a position his father also held from 1991 to 1993. He also heads the Ministry of Steel. He is a Member of Parliament i ...

was symbolically appointed the head of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Styles

*1945-1961- ''His Highness'' Yuvaraja Maharaj Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Bahadur. *1961-1971- ''His Highness'' Ali Jah, Umdat ul-Umara, Hisam us-Sultanat, Mukhtar ul-Mulk, Azim ul-Iqtidar, Rafi-us-Shan, Wala Shikoh, Muhtasham-i-Dauran,

Maharajadhiraj Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

Maharaja Shrimant Madhav Rao III Scindia Bahadur, Shrinath, Mansur-i-Zaman,

Scindia The Scindia dynasty (anglicized from Shinde) is a Hindu Maratha dynasty of maratha origin that ruled the erstwhile State of Gwalior. It had the Patil-ship of Kumberkerrab in Wai. It was founded by Ranoji Scindia, who started as a personal serva ...

Ancestry

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scindia, Madhavrao 1945 births 2001 deaths People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford Indian cricket administrators People from Madhya Pradesh Indian National Congress politicians Madhavrao Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in India Railway Ministers of India Scindia School alumni Indian sports executives and administrators India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1977–1979 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 Lok Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh People from Gwalior Presidents of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Civil aviation ministers of India Education Ministers of India Bharatiya Jana Sangh politicians Accidental deaths in India