Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna

Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna

Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna (April 25, 1919 – March 17, 1989) was a Congress Party leader and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh; he later joined Bharatiya Lok Dal and worked with Charan Singh.

Early life

He was the sixth child of his parents, born on 25 April, 1919 in a small village called Bhugani in the district of Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. His father Ravati Nandan Bahuguna was a village Patwari and his mother Dipa a housewife. The Bahuguna family hails from Bughani, Pauri Garhwal but settled in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

He studied in D.A.V. School and Messmore Inter College of Pauri Town. He passed 10th from Pauri and went to Allahabad for higher studies. In 1937, he moved to Allahabad for further studies and was admitted into the Government Intermediate College. There he founded the first “Students Parliament” in the college and was elected its “Prime Minister”.

Non-Cooperation Movement

In 1939-40 he was enrolled in B.Sc. at Allahabad University. The university, besides being known as the Oxford of the east, was also a pivot of the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi by 1940 had already beckoned the youth to join the Non-Cooperation Movement. In 1941 when the president of the Allahabad University Union was declared an absconder, Bahuguna was elected the dictents movement in Uttar Pradesh. His plunge into the freedom movement was deep. The British declared him a rebel and Bahuguna had to go underground. Subsequently a reward of Rs. 5000/- was offered by the British to anyone who aided in his arrest dead or alive.

An active participant in the freedom movement, Bahuguna was jailed several times in the prisons of Allahabad and Sultanpur. Finally in 1942 as a part of Quit India movement he was again jailed till 1946. In 1946 he completed his graduation in Arts.

After independence

Trade unions

India finally attained independence on 15 August 1947. Post independence period saw Bahuguna playing a major role in Trade Unions. He was instrumental in organizing labour unions at Allahabad in the Power House, Government Press, Central Ordinance Depot, Symonds, and Dey’s Medical. Unrelentingly he espoused their cause and never compromised with their cause or their welfare. A contemporary of Bahuguna, a union labour leader at Allahabad, Janab Abdul Hamid, said once, “Bahuguna Ji always fought for the cause of the labour and he was the only labour leader on whom we hed absolute faith in those days”. In 1953 he became a member of the Indian National Trade Union Congress.

State cabinet
In 1952 Bahuguna entered into the main stream of Indian politics. He was elected M.L.A. from Karchana and Chail constituency in Allahabad. In the house he impressed all with his deep understanding of the legislative process. The proceedings in the house reflect his deep concern for the proletariat, the downtrodden and the minorities. He was again elected to the U.P Legislative Assembly. This time from Sirathu in 1957. The same year Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, then Chief Minister U.P impressed with Bahuguna’s political acumen appointed to him Parliamentary Secretary and entrusted to him the portfolio of labour and industry. In 1960 he was elevated as a Deputy Minister with the same portfolio. In 1967 he was made the Finance Minister with the U.P Government.

Union Cabinet

In 1971 he was made State Minister for Communication in the Union Cabinet.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

1973 saw him as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India. His tenure was short and he was forced to resign by Indira Gandhi in 1975.

Parting of ways with the Congress

1976 saw parting of ways with the Congress and 1977 he was elected to the Parliament from Lucknow constituency. He was subsequently appointed as Cabinet Minister in the Department of Petroleum and Chemicals by the Prime Minister Morarji Desai. His brief stint as Petroleum Minister saw various projects which enabled the country to achieve self-sufficiency in Petroleum products.

1979 saw him as the Finance Minister with the Union Government of India. But by then the Janta Party was Plagued with conflicts amongst several Pressure groups. Disenchanted was Bahuguna again and Indira Gandhi took pains in convincing him that the Congress still stood by its ideals of socialism, and secularism. Thus the spirit was brought back in to the body.

In 1980 he won the Parliamentary elections from Garhwal with a thumping majority. But the spirit was restless again with the Congress. He left the party and resigned his seat as well. He there by established the highest norm in the history of Indian Parliamentary Democracy. Acharys Narendra Deo, earlier being the only exception, but Bhuguna with a difference, while the Acharya lost, when he recontested, Bahuguna won again in 1982.

Between 1982-84 he revived his Democratic Socialist Party. Later he joined the Lok Dal and became its Vice-President and subsequently its President.

1984 Lok Sabha Elections

He contested against the congress candidate, Amitabh Bachhan, in 1984 Parliamentary elections from Allahabad constituency. Bachhan won the election by approximately 1,87,000 votes. Later his wife Kamla Bahuguna also stood up for by-elections from Allahabad.

Death

He was later taken ill, for his heart was choked. Doctors advised him another by-pass surgery. He flew to the United States of America to find a ‘by-pass’ to establish the truth for all men, but on 17 March 1989 when the nation was gearing to felicitate H.N Bahuguna on completing 50 years of his chequered and dedicated career in Indian politics, it had to mourn his death when he breathed his last at the Cleveland Hospital.