Vidya Charan Shukla

Vidya Charan Shukla was an Indian politician whose political career spanned six decades. He was predominantly a member of the Indian National Congress, but also had spells in Jan Morcha, Janata Dal, Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya), Nationalist Congress Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. He was known as a close associate of Indira Gandhi and a loyalist of her son Sanjay Gandhi. Shukla was born on 2 August 1929 in Raipur. His father Ravishankar Shukla was a lawyer, an Indian National Congress politician from Central Provinces and Berar and the first Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. 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 in 1951. He started Allwyn Cooper Pvt Ltd, which organized big-game safari and photo expeditions of wildlife in the forests of central India. In the 1957 general elections, he was elected as a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, on an Indian National Congress ticket from Balodabazar constituency. He became one of the youngest MPs in the 2nd Lok Sabha. Subsequently, he won Lok Sabha elections from Mahasamund in 1962, 1964 (bypoll), 1967, 1980, 1984 and 1989; and from Raipur in 1971 and 1991. He lost from Raipur in 1977 and 1998; and from Mahasamund in 2004. He held various ministerial portfolios at the Centre, including Communications, Home, Defence, Finance, Planning, Civil Supplies, External Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources. He also served as the President of Indian Olympic Association from 1984 to 1987. But the role for which he is most remembered is as chief censor and government propagandist during the dark 21 months of the State of Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi when she seized control of the levers of the state in the mid-1970s. As Gandhi's choice in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and as part of a small coterie that surrounded Sanjay Gandhi, Shukla was a flamboyant and enthusiastic spearhead of the crackdown on dissent and free speech. He used his influence to muzzle the press as well as elements within the artistic community that opposed the draconian moves. He banned the songs of Kishore Kumar from All India Radio and Doordarshan because the singer once refused to perform at a Congress rally. He also ordered the burning of the prints of the political satire film Kissa Kursi Ka, which mocked the Gandhi family. He was later sentenced to two years of imprisonment for this offence. Shukla joined the revolt against Rajiv Gandhi in the mid 80s and was one of the founders of Jan Morcha headed by V P Singh. Later he became a minister in the National Front government of 1989-90 under V P Singh and switched allegiance to join the subsequent Chandrasekhar government to become External Affairs Minister. Then he returned to Congress and became a minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government. Later he had a brief stint with the BJP before returning to the Congress. He was in Congress from 2007 until his death in 2013. He was part of Congress Party's Parivartan Yatra in Chhattisgarh, when he was injured in a Naxal attack on 25 May 2013. He was later moved to Medanta at Gurgaon, where he succumbed to his injuries on 11 June 2013. He was cremated at his farm house at Labhandi village near Raipur, as per his wish. He is survived by his wife Saroj Shukla and three children Pallavi, Amit and Abhishek.