6th Deputy Prime Minister of India
Devi Lal
(born
Devi Dayal
; 25 September 1914 ? 6 April 2001), also known as
Chaudhary Devi Lal
, was an Indian statesman and politician who served as 6th
Deputy Prime Minister of India
from 1989 to 1990 and from 1990 to 1991.
[1]
Lal emerged as farmer leader from the state of
Haryana
, and served as the
Chief Minister of Haryana
from 1977 to 1979 and then from 1987 to 1989.
[1]
He was the founder of
Indian National Lok Dal
. He was popularly known as Tau, meaning uncle.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Devi Lal was born on 25 September 1914 in Teja Khera village of
Sirsa district
in present-day Haryana. His mother's name was Shugna Devi and father's name was Lekh Ram Sihag. Lekh Ram was a
Jat
of Chautala village and he owned 2750 bighas of land. He received education up to middle-school.
[2]
[3]
[
better source needed
]
His son
Om Prakash Chautala
has also served as Haryana's chief minister four times.
Lal's ancestral roots lie in
Bikaner
, Rajasthan, from where his great-grandfather Tejaram had migrated. His father Lekhram relocated to Chautala village in 1919 when Lal was five years old. In 1928 at the age of 16 Lal participated in demonstration by
Lala Lajpat Rai
. He was a student of
"Dev Samaj Public High School Moga"
in
Moga
during his 10th class, at that time was arrested at Congress office in 1930, he quit studies and joined freedom movement. He also took wrestling lesson at an
Akhara
in
Badal
village of Punjab. He was first elected MLA in 1952.
[4]
Lal comes from a
prolific political dynasty of Haryana
. His elder brother Sahib Ram Sihag was the first politician from the family who became Congress MLA from Hisar in 1938 and 1947.
[5]
Lal had four sons, Partap Singh, Om Prakash Chautala, Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Chander. All joined politics except Jagdish who died at a young age. His eldest son, Partap Singh, was an MLA from Indian National Lok Dal in the 1960s.
[6]
Independence movement
[
edit
]
Lal was a follower of
Mahatma Gandhi
and was involved in the struggle for India's independence from the
British Raj
.He left his studies unfinished to take part in the freedom movement.
[
citation needed
]
For this, he was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment and sent to
Hissar
jail on 8 October 1930. He took part in the movement of 1932 and was kept in Sadar Delhi Thana. In 1938 he was selected delegate of
All-India Congress Committee
. In March 1938 his elder brother was elected a
Member of the Legislative Assembly
in a by-election on the
Congress party
ticket. In January 1940, Sahib Ram courted arrest as a
satyagrahi
in the presence of Lal and over ten thousand people. He was fined Rs 100 and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.
[
citation needed
]
Lal was arrested on 5 October 1942 and kept in jail for two years for taking part in the 1942
Quit India
movement. He was released from prison in October 1943 and he negotiated parole for his elder brother. In August 1944,
Chhotu Ram
, the then Revenue Minister, visited
Chautala
village. He, along with Lajpat Rai Alakhpura, made efforts to woo both Sahib Ram and Lal to desert Congress and join the
Unionist Party
. But both workers, being dedicated freedom fighters, refused to leave the Congress Party.
[
citation needed
]
Post independence
[
edit
]
Pre-1960: Punjab Assembly politics
[
edit
]
After independence, Lal emerged as a popular farmer leader in the 1950s and started a farmers' movement, for which he was arrested along with his 500 workers. After some time, then chief minister,
Gopi Chand Bhargava
, made an agreement and the Muzzara Act was amended. He was elected a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1952 and President of the Punjab Congress in 1956.
[
citation needed
]
In 1958, he was elected from
Sirsa
.
Pre-1980: Haryana Assembly politics
[
edit
]
He played an active and decisive role in the formation of
Haryana
as a separate state. In 1971 he left Congress. In 1972 vidhan sabha elections, he contested unsuccessfully against the two Congress heavyweights, Bansi Lal in
Tosham
constituency and Bhajan Lal in Adampur seat.
[7]
In 1974 he successfully contested in the Rori constituency. In 1975,
Indira Gandhi
declared
the Emergency
and Lal along with all opposition leaders were jailed for 19 months. In 1977, the emergency ended and
general elections
were held. He was elected on the
Janata Party
ticket from Bhattu Kalan and became the
Chief Minister of Haryana
.
[1]
Post-1980: national and state politics
[
edit
]
He remained a
Member of Parliament
from 1980 to 1982 and was a member of State assembly between 1982 and 1987. He formed
Lok Dal
and started Nyaya Yuddh (en. battle for justice), under the banner of Haryana Sangharsh Samiti, and became hugely popular among masses. In the 1987 state elections, the alliance led by Lal won a record victory winning 85 seats in the 90 member house. Congress won the other five seats. Lal became the chief minister of Haryana for the second time. In the
1989 parliamentary election
, he was simultaneously elected, both from
Sikar
, Rajasthan and
Rohtak
, Haryana.On 1 December 1989, VP Singh nominated Devi Lal for the post of Prime Minister in the middle house of Parliament, despite Singh himself being nominated as a pure alternative prime ministerial candidate. But the Jat leader of Haryana refused to accept the post of Prime Minister and magnanimously nominated VP Singh for the post of Prime Minister. But the refusal to give the prime ministership to Devilal's close friend Chandrasekhar, who was VP Singh's prime ministerial rival within the Janata Dal, caused surprise among many party members. Because some leaders told him that Devilal will come as the prime ministerial candidate. VP Singh was working honestly in many positions in the Congress and found many allegations of corruption against the government of Rajiv Gandhi. After declaring Singh as a qualified candidate for Prime Minister, Devi Lal walked out of the assembly and refused to participate in the cabinet. He became deputy prime minister of the country from 1989 to 1991 in the non-Congress governments of VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar
[1]
He was elected to
Rajya Sabha
in August 1998. Later, his son
Om Prakash Chautala
also became the chief minister of Haryana.
[8]
Lal died on 6 April 2001 at the age of 85. He was cremated at
Sangarsh Sthal
on the banks of the river
Yamuna
in New Delhi. "Kisan Ghat" is the samadhi of another popular leader of the farmers,
Charan Singh
, the fifth
Prime Minister of India
.
Political career
[
edit
]
Legislative Assembly service
[
edit
]
Parliamentary service
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Topics
| |
---|
Districts
and
divisions
| |
---|
Major
cities
| |
---|
Culture
| |
---|
Economy
| |
---|
|
|
---|
Elections
| |
---|
Chief ministers
| |
---|
Governors
| |
---|
State agencies
|
- Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam
- Debt Conciliation Board
- Doordarshan Haryana
- Foreign Investment and NRI Cell
- Forests Department, Haryana
- Department of Economic and Statistical Analysis, Haryana
- Department of Environment, Haryana
- Department of Excise & Taxation, Haryana
- Department of Finance, Haryana
- Department of Industries & Commerce, Haryana
- Department of Industrial Training & Vocational Education, Haryana
- Department of Institutional Finance & Credit Control, Haryana
- Department of Labour and Employment (Haryana)
- Department of Land records & Consolidation, Haryana
- Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Haryana
- Department of Rehabilitation, Haryana
- Department of Higher Education (Haryana)
- Department of School Education, Haryana
- Department of Elementary Education, Haryana
- Haryana Board of School Education
- Haryana Civil Medical Services
- Haryana Environment Protection Council
- Haryana Land Record Information System
- Haryana Power Generation Corporation
- Haryana Police
- Haryana Roadways
- Haryana Seeds Development Corporation
- Haryana State Directorate of Archaeology & Museums
- Haryana State Legal Services Authority, Haryana
- Haryana Tourism Corporation
- Haryana Urban Development Authority
- Haryana Waqf Board
- State Counselling Board, Haryana
- Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam
|
---|
|
|
|