Veteran Cong leader Balram Jakhar dead

Thursday, 04/02/2016

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NEW DELHI: Veteran Congress leader Balram Jakhar, a former Lok Sabha speaker and union agriculture minister, died on Wednesday after battling ailments for six months.

Jakhar, 92, had suffered brain haemorrhage last year. He lived with his son Sunil Jakhar, a for mer leader of opposition in Punjab, in a rented accommodation in Defence Colony, where he breathed his last at 7am.

The body is being taken to his native village of Panjkosi near Abohar in Punjab where he will be cremated on Thursday.

Born in Ferozepur in 1923, Jakhar was a champion of farmers’ cause.

He had the rare honour of holding some of the highest constitutional posts including that of governor and Lok Sabha speaker.

He was agriculture minister in the PV Narsimha Rao government and a Lok Sabha MP for four terms. He also served as governor of Madhya Pradesh between 2004 and 2009.

Jakhar had the rare distinction of being elected Lok Sabha speaker for two successive terms from 1980 to 1989. His term as speaker saw significant legislations being passed by the house and measures to improve its functioning.

Jakhar graduated from a college in undivided Punjab’s Lahore town and was well-versed in English, Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu apart from Punjabi.

After graduation, he took up the family profession of farming and made use of modem techniques for the development of orchards and vineyards in his farmlands which led to increase in the crop yield.

Jakhar’s services in fruitgrowing received national recognition and he was awarded the title ‘All India Udyan Pandit’ by the president in 1975. It was his leadership role among the farming community that eventually pushed Jakhar into an active political role at the national level.

His legislative career began in 1972 when he was elected to the Punjab assembly. Within one year of his election to the assembly, he was inducted as the deputy minister of co-operation, irrigation and power. He remained a minister till 1977.

In 1977, when the Congress faced a rout, he won his election and was chosen as leader of the Congress (I) legislature party and recognised as the leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly. He held the position till January 1980 when he was elected to the seventh Lok Sabha from Ferozepur. He was elected speaker on January 22, 1980.

Following his re-election to Lok Sabha in 1984 from Sikar in Rajasthan, he was again elected the speaker.