A homage to Gulzarilal Nanda ,the former Prime Minister of India as flshed by me on the f.b. on October 19,2010.

Bishwanath Singh :
Can we recollect a man having towering personality held interim Prime Minister ship of our country twice had no house of his own and twice evicted on non-payment of rent by his Private House Owner and thrived on the freedom fighters pension after laying of his office and who died at the age of Ninety nine? He was none else than Gulzarilal Nanda. Let us have glimpse of his life in brief and pay our respectful homage to him!
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Bishwanath Singh :
Gulzarilal Nanda was born on July 4, 1898, in Sialkot (Punjab) and was educated at Lahore, Agra and Allahabad. He worked as a research scholar on labour problems at the University of Allahabad (1920-1921) and became Professor of Economics at the National College (Bombay) in 1921. He joined the Non-Cooperation Movement the same year. I...n 1922, he becomes Secretary of the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association in which he worked until 1946. He was imprisoned for Satyagraha in 1932, and again from 1942 to 1944. He was elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly in 1937 and was Parliamentary Secretary (Labor and Excise) to the Government of Bombay from 1937 to 1939. Later, as Labour Minister of the Bombay Government (1946-50), he successfully piloted the Labor Disputes Bill in the State Assembly. He served as Trustee, Kasturba Memorial Trust; Secretary, Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Sangh; and Chairman, Bombay Housing Board. He was also a Member of the National Planning Committee. He was largely instrumental in organising the Indian National Trade Union Congress and later became its President. In 1947, he went to Geneva as a Government delegate to the International Labour Conference. He worked on the 'The Freedom of Association Committee' appointed by the Conference and visited Sweden, France, Switzerland, Belgium and England to study labour and housing conditions in those countries. In March 1950, he joined the Planning Commission as its Vice-Chairman. In September the following year, he was appointed Planning Minister in the Union Government. In addition, he was also given charge of the portfolios of Irrigation and Power. He was elected to the House of the People from Bombay in the general elections of 1952 and was re-appointed Minister for Planning Irrigation and Power. He led the Indian Delegation to the Plan Consultative Committee held at Singapore in 1955, and the International Labor Conference held at Geneva in 1959. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 1957 general elections, and was appointed Union Minister for Labour and Employment and Planning and, later, as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. He visited the Federal Republic of Germany Yugoslavia and Austria in 1959. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in the 1962 general elections from Sabarkantha Constituency in Gujarat. He initiated the Congress Forum for Socialist Action in 1962. He was Union Minister for Labour and Employment in 1962 and 1963 and Minister for Home Affairs from 1963 to 1966. Following the death of Pt. Jawahal Lal Nehru , he was a sworn in as Prime Minister of India on May 27, 1964. Again on January 11, 1966, he was sworn in as Prime Minister following the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri at Tashkent. He was awarded posthumously the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1997.He had been all throughout a principled politician and found himself out of tune with the changed circumstances. He did not own any property and lived in a rented house in New Delhi's Defense Colony from which he was evicted since he could not pay its rent and moved to Ahmedabad where he lived with his daughter. What sets him apart from almost all the other freedom fighters that held high offices in independent India is his complete insulation from desire material. He had no source of income and would not accept funds from his children or from any well wisher. A friend, Sheel Bhadra Yajee, forced him to sign an application for the freedom fighter's pension of Rs Five hundred per month He died on the 15th of January 1998 at the age of ninety nine at New Delhi leaving us to mourn his death with sobbing eyes.He was a man of sterling character having a very high towering personality. He was a great statesman. Let us pay our respectful homage to him!
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Bishwanath Singh
:It's the Photo of Gulzarilal Nanda who was the second and fourth Prme Minister of India from May 27, 1964 to June 9,1964 & from January11, 1966 to January24, 1966 respectively.A great man indeed.Let us pay our humble obeisance's to His lotus feet,though He is no more with us but His legacy will remind us of His presence all the times!
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f.b..
October 29,2010