Kamal Nath

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Nath at the 2008 World Economic Forum

Kamal Nath ( Hindi कमल नाथ ; born November 18, 1946 in Kanpur , Uttar Pradesh ) is an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress . He was a minister in several Indian Union governments (most recently in the Manmohan Singh I cabinet from 2004 and in the Manmohan Singh II cabinet from 2009) and since 1980 with an interruption from 1996 to 1998 a member of the Indian House of Commons (Lok Sabha) . From December 17, 2018 to March 20, 2020, he served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh State .

biography

Kamal Nath was born in 1946, a few months before India's independence, in the north Indian city of Kanpur as the son of the businessman Mahendra Nath and his wife Leela into a Brahmin Hindu family. He attended the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun (then Uttar Pradesh , now Himachal Pradesh ), where Rajiv Gandhi , the eldest son of Indira Gandhi, was also a pupil. Through this he came into contact with the Nehru Gandhi family , of which he became loyal supporters. In 1968 Nath joined the Congress Party. After attending school, he studied at St. Xavier's College in Kolkata , where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Member of Parliament and Ministerial Post

In the late 1970s, Nath showed himself to be a loyal follower of Indira Gandhi and participated in the rift and disintegration of the Janata government under Morarji Desai in 1979, so that Indira Gandhi once publicly referred to him as her "third son". In the 1980 all-India election , he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time as a candidate for Indira Gandhi's Congress Party ( Congress (I) ) in the 27-Chhindwara constituency. In almost all subsequent elections ( 1984 , 1989 , 1991 , 1998 , 1999 , 2004 , 2009 and most recently 2014 ) he was able to maintain the constituency for more than 30 years. Only in the legislative period from 1996 to 1998 did his wife Alka sit in his place as a member of the constituency in the Lok Sabha. From 1991 to 1995 he was Minister of State for Environment and Forestry in the Rao cabinet, with his own area of ​​responsibility, and from 1995 to 1996 Minister of State for the textile industry.

From September 2002 to July 2004 he was a member of the central governing body of the Congress Party, the Congress Working Committee and its Secretary General, before he became Minister for Trade and Industry in the Manmohan Singh I cabinet on May 23, 2004 .

In Cabinet Minister Manmohan Singh II (2009 to 2014) took a Nath different positions. From 2009 to January 18, 2011 he was Cabinet Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Cabinet Minister for Urban Development from January 19, 2011 to May 26, 2014, and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs from October 28, 2012 to May 26, 2014.

After the election to the parliament of Madhya Pradesh on November 28, 2018, in which the Congress Party won 114 of the 230 constituency seats, Kamal Nath was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on December 17, 2018. In addition to the Congress Party MPs, the four non-party MPs, the two MPs from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the MP from the Samajwadi Party agreed to support his government.

In March 2020, Nath's government got into a crisis when a total of 22 MPs under the leadership of Jyotiraditya Scindia left the Congress Party and later joined the BJP. As a result, the government lost its parliamentary majority and Nath resigned as Chief Minister on March 20, 2020. Three days later, Shivraj Singh Chauhan was sworn in by the governor as his successor.

Private

Nath has been married since 1973 and has two sons with his wife Alka. He is one of the wealthiest MPs in India. In March 2014, he declared possession of ₹ 187 crore , which was around 22.5 million euros at the time.

International fame

Kamal Nath is one of the few top Indian politicians who have achieved a certain degree of recognition internationally. Kamal Nath was the representative of India at numerous international conferences and in this role partly assumed a central position. At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 , Nath was one of the leading spokespersons for developing countries. He was head of Indian delegations to Finland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Dubai and the United Kingdom as well as to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Economic Forum in Davos .

During his tenure as Minister of Trade and Industry, he played an active role in the negotiations to conclude a framework agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in July 2004. The subsequent G20 summit took place in December 2005 in Delhi. Kamal Nath was also known abroad because of the politics he represented in India in the WTO, which, together with the Chinese and US positions, led to the failure of the Doha Round in 2008 . After the breakdown of talks, on July 30, 2008, Nath accused the United States of sacrificing the interests of the poorest part of the world to its own trade interests. Critics noted, however, that Nath always knows how to play the role of representative of the poorest in a very effective way, which is always well received by Indian voters.

Controversy

During Nath's political career, his role in the anti-Sikh pogroms in 1984 after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Siikh bodyguards was discussed. At that time, thousands of Sikhs were killed all over India, but mainly in Delhi as a result of violent acts of incited Hindus. Kamal Nath admitted to having been near Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi on November 1, 1984 , but denied any involvement in the violence.

Right at the start of his post as Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh, Nath sparked controversy with his remark that unemployment in Madhya Pradesh was mainly caused by migrant workers from the two northern neighboring states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Leading politicians from the states mentioned criticized the statement as " divisive ".

Web links

Commons : Kamal Nath  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Sixteenth Lok Sabha: Members Bioprofile: Kamal Nath, Shri. Lok Sabha website, accessed on December 19, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Kamal Nath: The man behind Congress' 'kamaal' performance in Madhya Pradesh. The Indian Express, December 14, 2018, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c PROFILE OF SHRI KAMAL NATH, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India ( April 10, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive ), from the website of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry
  4. ↑ Kamal Nath Sworn in as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. The Wire, December 17, 2018, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  5. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed December 18, 2018 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).
  6. ↑ Kamal Nath sworn in as Madhya Pradesh chief minister. The Times of India, December 17, 2018, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Rahul Noronha: BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan sworn in as Madhya Pradesh CM for fourth time. indiatoday.in, March 22, 2020, accessed on March 26, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Kamal Nath declares assets worth over Rs. 187 crore. NDTV, March 27, 2014, accessed December 20, 2018 .
  9. ↑ India, USA and China prevent new world trade pact (Spiegel-Online of July 29, 2008)
  10. ↑ Heather Stewart: Doha: India accuses US of sacrificing world's poor at trade talks. The Guardian, July 31, 2008, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  11. ^ Alan Beattie: Kamal Nath: Showmanship at the WTO that plays well with the poor. January 30, 2009, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Gaurav Vivek: '84 shadows big day for new MP CM Kamal Nath. The Wire, accessed December 19, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Yogi, Akhilesh criticize Kamal Nath's 'UP, Bihar' comment. Hindustan Times, accessed December 19, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Nath, Kamal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Kanpur , Uttar Pradesh