Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma
(1918 - )
President - Calcutta, 1972

Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, like many Madhya Pradesh politicians, moved to the former princely state of Bhopal from Uttar Pradesh during the state people's movement against feudal tyranny. He combined his love for study with sports and politics from his student days in Allahabad. A good athlete, a cross-country runner and a champion swimmer, he flirted with journalism in his student days and jumped into politics during the hectic days of the Quit India movement. He combined teaching with politics. For nine years he taught law in the Lucknow University before he became Chief Minister of Bhopal.

He was affable, amiable and a good conversationalist. An opportunist, Dr. Sharma joined hands with Indira Gandhi during the critical days of the split. As Chief Minister of Bhopal his first measure was to abolish all jagirdaris at one stroke. As Education Minister he had made education free for Harijans, Adivasis and other backward classes as well as for girls. The teacher in him has always remained dominant. He was leader of the Indian delegation at UNESCO's conference on primary and secondary education held at Karachi in 1959. For thirteen years he was a member of the Central Advisory Board for Education.

As the person in charge of the parliamentary wing of the AICC, Dr. Sharma had to execute, some very delicate assignments involving changes in State Governments in some of the difficult Congress States. In 1972 he was re-elected Congress President, unopposed, for a full two-year term. His presidentship of the Congress witnessed the emergence of a revitalised party and the office of the Congress President regained some of its lost importance. He also served the Congress as Chairman of the All India Advisory Board of Congress Seva Dal.

He was absorbed into the Union Cabinet in 1975 as Communication Minister. He was defeated in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections; but came back to Parliament in 1980 and held many important non-official positions, both in the Congress and outside. He was appointed the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in 1984 but after the recent elections in the Punjab, in the wake of the Longowal-Rajiv Accord between the Prime Minister and the Akali Dal President, who was later assassinated, Dr. Sharma was transferred as the Governor of Punjab.

We must not forget that the Garibi Hatao movement on which the nation is launched today under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi is not merely an Indian phenomenon. India has really given a concrete shape and form to the deep urges which have been moving the newly free, developing countries. A large number of these countries have drawn their lesson from India's method of planned development to build a new society based on equity and justice which necessarily means avoiding a path in which production by the entire society is appropriated by a few and the economy operates to the detriment of the many and for the benefit of a handful. The Congress is following this path in no spirit of rancour or hostility to any group or class but, with the sole purpose of uplifting our vast, long suffering masses from the depths of poverty and starvation.

From the Presidential Address-Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma
I.N.C. Session, 1972, Calcutta.