Balwantrai Mehta

Balwantrai Gopalji Mehta ( Gujarati : બળવંતરાય મહેતા; * February 19, 1899 in Bhavnagar , Princely State of Bhavnagar , British India , today: Gujarat ; † September 19, 1965 in the Kachchh District , India) was an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress (INC), who, among other things, was a member of the Lok Sabha , the First Chamber of the Indian Parliament (Bhāratīya Saṃsad) , between 1952 and 1962 and was Chief Minister of Gujarat from 1963 until his death in 1965 . He died when his plane was shot down by the Pakistani Air Force over the Great Rann of Kachchh during the Second Indo-Pakistani War .

Life

Journalist, independence fighter and minister

Mehta, son of Gopaljee Tribhuvandas Mehta, completed his education at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar and at Gujarat Arts & Science College in Ahmedabad , where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then worked as a journalist and was a member of the Bhavnagar Management Committee between 1923 and 1926. In 1927 he became a member of the Servants of the People Society , a social organization founded in 1921 by Lala Lajpat Rai , and between 1928 and 1935 he served as general secretary of the People's Conference of the All-India States (All-India States Peoples Conference) . He supported Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in the struggle for India's independence and was arrested eight times in seven years. In 1940 he became a member of the Central Committee of the AICC (All India Congress Committee) and was a member of this until 1957. Between January and February 1943 he briefly served as Prime Minister of the Princely State of Bhavnagar .

He later served as Vice President of the All-India States Peoples Conference between 1946 and 1948 and President of the City Council (Praja Parishad) of Bhavnagar. Between 1946 and 1948 he was a member of the legislative assembly of the Princely State of Bhavnagar and was the opposition leader there from September 15, 1946 to January 15, 1948 . After India gained independence from the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947, Mehta became a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, of which he was a member until January 24, 1950. After Bhavnagar became a member of the Saurashtra State Union on August 15, 1947 and was annexed to India on February 15, 1948, Mehta first became a member of the Constituent Assembly and was then a member of the Legislative Assembly of Saurashtra between 1949 and 1952. In 1948 he was appointed to the state government of Saurashtra by Chief Minister Uchharangray Navalshankar Dhebar , and served there until 1950 as Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Railways, Ports, Political Affairs, Customs, Consumer Goods, Local Government, Post, Telecommunications, Road Transport, Cooperation and disadvantaged classes before he was Minister of Education in 1950. At the same time was from 1948 to 1949 a member of the working committee of the AICC and between 1950 and 1952 Secretary of the Congress Party in Gujarat.

Member of Lok Sabha and Chief Minister of Gujarat

In the parliamentary elections from 1951 to 1952 , Mehta was elected for the first time for the Indian National Congress (INC) as a member of the Lok Sabha , the First Chamber of the Indian Parliament (Bhāratīya Saṃsad) , and represented there after his re-election in the parliamentary election between February 24 and From March 15, 1957 to the parliamentary elections from February 19 to 25, 1962, the constituency of Bombay-Gohilwad . At the same time he was again a member of the working committee of the AICC between 1952 and 1957 as well as President of the Congress Party in Gohilwad. He was also between 1954 and 1955 Secretary General of the INC and from 1955 to 1957 with short interruption and again in 1962 Chairman of the Treasury Committee of the Lok Sabha. In 1957 he became vice president of the Servants of the People Society .

On September 18, 1963, Mehta succeeded his party friend Jivraj Mehta as Chief Minister of Gujarat . He held this post until his death when his plane was shot down by the Pakistani Air Force over the Kachchh district in the Indian-Pakistani border region on September 19, 1965. After that, the state of the presidential government was initially under ( President's rule ) of President S. Radhakrishnan ruled before on October 1, 1965 Hitendra Kanaiyalal Desai became the new Chief Minister of Gujarat.

46 years after the plane was shot down, the pilot of the Pakistani fighter involved publicly expressed his regrets and condolences to the relatives of those killed at the time.

Mehta had been married to Sarojbahen since 1936 and was the adoptive father of a son.

Web links

• Entry on the Lok Sabha homepage
• Entry in rulers.org
• India: States after 1947 AL (rulers.org)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Shahzeb Jillani: Pakistan pilot's 'remorse' for 1965 shooting down. BBC News, August 10, 2011, accessed October 4, 2017 .