Balwantrai Mehta
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Balwantrai Mehta (February 19, 1899 - September 19, 1965) was the second Chief Minister of Gujarat, India. He was a valiant freedom fighter, social worker and pioneer of concept of Panchayati Raj (local government). He was a soldier in the Bardoli Satyagraha. His greatest contribution were in the sphere of princely states' peoples' fight for self-rule. His name is conspicuously linked with democratic decentralization.
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[edit] Pre-independence
He was born in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. There he rose in grassroots politics. Coming in contact with likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Lala Lajpat Rai, he joined Indian independence movement. During this struggle, the British government many times imprisoned him.
[edit] Post-independence
After the independence he was twice elected as a Member of Parliament in India's Lok Sabha. As the Chairman of Estimate committee he produced the report on local self-governance and was hailed as the Father of Panchayat Raj.
[edit] Gujarat
He succeeded Dr. Jivraj Mehta as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1963. In the 1965 India-Pakistan war, he went for inspection of the Gujarat border along with his wife Shrimati Sarojben, pilot J. M. Engineer and six other crew members. On September 18, 1965, he was travelling in a civilian Dakota aircraft over Kachchh district of Gujarat when two Pakistani fighter planes chased his aircraft and fired on it. It is said that Pilot J. M. Engineer tried to crash plane in the sea but plane crashed couple of miles before reaching the sea. He is the first and probably only Indian politician, who happens to be died in battle by enemy action.
Department of Post, Government of India has issued a special postage stage of face value INR 3.00 to commemorate his 100th birth anniversary on February 19, 2000.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Special postage stamp on Balwantrai Mehta, Dr. Hrekrushna Mahtab and Arun Kumar Chanda (html) (English). Press information bureau, Govt. of India. Archived from the original on 2008-01-08. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
