Sikander Bakht
Encyclopedia
Sikander Bakht was a politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He was one of the Indian statesman and one of tallest leaders of BJP.

Early life

Sikander Bakht was born in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

, India in 1918. He attended the Anglo Arabic Senior Secondary School, Delhi and completed his Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 from the Anglo-Arabic College (now known as Zakir Husain College) in Delhi. During his school and college days he was a keen hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 player and represented Delhi University and Delhi in various tournaments. He also played and captained the Independents Hockey Club. He was a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

, he married a Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 lady. He once said he is proud member of BJP and always maintained that India is land of secularism and supported the ethos of India.

Political career

In 1952 Bakht was elected to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as a Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 candidate. In 1968 he was elected as The Chairman of Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking. In 1969 The Congress party split and Bakht stayed with Congress (Organisation). Bakht was then elected to The Metropolitan Council of Delhi as a Congress (O) candidate. On June 25, 1975 Emergency was declared by Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...

 Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...

, Bakht along with other opposition leaders was imprisoned on June 25, 1975. He was lodged in The Rohtak Jail until his release in December 1976. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered General Elections in March 1977. As soon as the opposition leaders were released, they merged all opposition parties to form The Janta Party.

In March 1977 Bakht was elected to The Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...

(The Lower House of Indian Parliament) as a Janta Party candidate, from Chandni Chowk in New Delhi. Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977–79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...

 was appointed Prime Minister and he appointed Bakht as a Cabinet Minister for Works, Housing, Supply and Rehablitation. He served in this capacity till July 1979.

In 1980 The Janta Party split and Bakht opted to be with The Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...

 (BJP). He was appointed as General Secretary of BJP. In 1984 he was made the Vice President of BJP. In 1990 Bakht was elected to the Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...

(The Upper House of the Indian Parliament). In 1992 he became the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. (The Leader of Opposition is equivalent to Cabinet Minister's post.) In 1996 he was reelected to the Rajya Sabha.

In May 1996, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...

 offered Bakht the post of Minister of Urban Affairs when he formed his government. Bakht, however, demanded a higher post, and on May 24 he was given the additional post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Vajpayee Government lasted only 13 days. Bakht was Foreign Minister for little more than a week, as he was forced to resign when Vajpayee's government collapsed on June 1, 1996. After the collapse of the Vajpayee government, Bakht became The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha once again.

In 1998 Vajpayee was again appointed Prime Minister and Bakht was appointed Industry Minister. In addition he was appointed as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha.

Awards

In 2000 Bakht was awarded the Padma Vibhushan
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...

. This is the second highest Indian civilian award. The only other person in the BJP to be awarded the Padma Vibhushan is Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Death

Bakht finished his term in Rajya Sabha on April 9, 2002. On April 18, 2002, Bakht was sworn in as Governor of Kerala. He was highly popular and served in this post until his death. Bakht died in the Medical College Hospital in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

's capital city Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...

 on February 23, 2004, from complications of intestinal surgery which was performed on February 19. He was replaced two days later by Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

 governor T. N. Chaturvedi
T. N. Chaturvedi
Triloki Nath Chaturvedi was the governor of Karnataka, a state in India, from 2002 to 2007.Chaturvedi is a retired IAS officer and held the office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India from 1984 to 1990. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1990. He became Governor of Kerala on 21 August...

. There is growing concern, particularly among BJP members, that Bakht may have died because of medical negligence
Medical malpractice
Medical malpractice is professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error. Standards and...

, but nothing has yet been proven.

External links


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