Purno Agitok Sangma

PA Sangma (left) with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2004)

Purno Agitok Sangma (born September 1, 1947 in Chapahati, Garo Hills , India , † March 4, 2016 in New Delhi ) was an Indian politician from the state of Meghalaya . Throughout his political life, he was for many years a member of parliament, several ministers, Secretary of State, Chief Minister of Meghalaya 1988-1990, and speakers ( speaker ) of the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 1998. In the 2012 presidential election in India , he was the opposition's top candidate. In 2012 he founded the National People's Party and was its first chairman.

biography

origin

Purno Agitok Sangma was born in northeast India in the so-called Garo Hills (today's West Garo Hills district in Meghalaya) into a peasant family. His father was Dipchon Ch. Marak and his mother was Chimri A. Sangma. The family belonged to the Tibeto-Burmese people of the Garo , one of the indigenous peoples of India ( Adivasi ). Like most of the Garo, the family belonged to the Christian denomination in India . When Sangma was born, India had just been independent of British colonial rule for a few months and the Garo Hills later became an autonomous district of the state of Assam and from 1972 belonged to the new state of Meghalaya. The father died when he was 11 years old, which is why he had to leave school temporarily and help in the family business. He later attended St. Anthony's College and studied at Dibrugarh University in Assam, where he earned a Masters degree (International Relations). He also obtained a law degree.

Political career until 1988

From the 1970s Sangma was politically active in the Congress Party. From 1973 to 1975 he held various positions in the Pradesh Youth Congress (the local branch of the youth organization of the congress party Indian Youth Congress ) in Meghalaya and from 1975 to 1980 he served as general secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee , the local governing body of the congress party in Meghalaya. In the all-India parliamentary elections in 1977 he was elected as a candidate for the Congress Party in the constituency of 2-Tura in the Lok Sabha . He was able to win this constituency in the following elections in 1980 , 1984 , 1991 , 1996 , 1998 , 1999 , 2004 and most recently in 2014 again with large majorities (> 60%). During his years as a member of parliament, he held various government offices in the Congress Party-led governments. From 1980 to 1982 he was Deputy Minister of Industry and from 1982 to 1984 Deputy Minister of Commerce in the Indira Gandhi cabinet . In the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet , he was Deputy Minister of Commerce between January and March 1985, State Secretary for Trade and Supply from March to September 1985, State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior from 1985 to 1986 and State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor from 1986 to 1988.

Chief Minister and opposition leader in Meghalaya from 1988 to 1991

In 1988, Sangma resigned from parliament and government to run for general election in Meghalaya. In the 1988 election, the Congress party became the strongest party, winning 22 of the 60 constituencies. Sangma won the 52-Tura state constituency and was elected Chief Minister at the head of a coalition government. In March 1990, his government was replaced by a government under Brington Buhai Lyngdoh ( All Party Hill Leaders' Conference ) and Sagma was opposition leader in the parliament of Meghalaya from 1990-1991.

In federal politics from 1991 to 1998

From 1991 he switched back to federal politics as a member of parliament for the constituency 2-Tura . In the Rao cabinet , he was State Secretary for Coal from 1991–1993, State Secretary for Labor from 1993–1995, Cabinet Minister for Labor from February to September 1995 and Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting from 1995–1996. He was the first member of an indigenous people ( tribal ) in the history of India to hold the rank of cabinet minister. On May 23, 1996, after the parliamentary elections in 1996 , which were lost for the Congress party and banished them to the opposition, he was elected speaker of the Lok Sabha parliament by a large majority . His choice fell at a time of great fragmentation of the party spectrum and of great party antagonisms and unstable governments. Sangma was the first Adivasi in this office and the fact that he was elected as a member of the opposition with a large non-partisan majority expressed the non-partisan reputation he enjoyed. It was largely on his initiative that Parliament held a special session from August 26 to September 1, 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence. He held the office of Speaker of Parliament until March 23, 1998.

Congress Party dissident and 1998 to 2012

From 1996 to 1998, the Congress Party found itself in a severe leadership crisis. Since the violent death of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, she has been largely leaderless. The Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao , who was in office from 1991 to 1996, was only considered a candidate for the transition and also lost the 1996 parliamentary election. Since then, it has been unclear who will lead the party in the future. After the 1998 election, the party's governing bodies finally agreed that Sonia Gandhi , Rajiv Gandhi's widow, who had resisted this office for a long time, would take over the leadership of the party . However, this decision was highly controversial in the Congress party, as Sonia Gandhi did not come from India, but was a native Italian and Catholic. Prominent congress party members spoke out against the assumption of party leadership by a "foreigner". One of Sonia Gandhi's most prominent opponents, alongside Sharad Pawar (in Maharashtra ) and Tariq Anwar (in Bihar ), was PA Sangma in Meghalaya. On May 17, 1999, the three published an open letter to the party leadership in which they posed the rhetorical question of whether it was possible for a country of 980 million people to elect an “Indian-born head of government”. The Congress party leadership responded on May 20, 1999 by expelling the three authors from the party, which was initially limited to 6 years. In response, the three formed a new party on May 25, 1999, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The NCP had one of its focuses in Meghalaya, among others. In the 1999 general election, Sangma was re-elected as an NCP candidate in his old constituency, 2-Tura .

Before the 2004 general election , there was a rift between Sangma and the NCP party leader Sharad Pawar. Parwar sought a rapprochement between the NCP and the Congress party under Sonia Gandhi and an electoral alliance with the same (the programmatic differences between the two parties were small). This was strictly rejected by Sangma. On March 15, 2004, Sangma left the NCP together with his supporters in Meghalaya and joined the Trinamool Congress , a party that was formed under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee in 1996 as a split from the Congress Party in neighboring West Bengal , which then became a nationalist Trinamool Congress (NTC) renamed. In the 2004 election he was elected as a candidate for the NTC. Sangma was thus one of three elected members of the NTC. However, Sangma did not last long in the NTC. On October 10, 2005, he resigned from the party and at the same time resigned from his parliamentary seat. In a by-election on February 16, 2006, he again won his constituency - this time again as a candidate for the Nationalist Congress Party, which he had rejoined. On March 20, 2008, he gave back his mandate in the Lok Sabha to devote himself to regional policy in Meghalaya. Between 2008 and 2012 he was an MP for the NCP in the Meghalaya Parliament.

Candidate for president and founding of the National People's Party in 2012

Before the 2012 presidential election in India , there were lengthy discussions about possible candidates for the highest office in the state. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to persuade the parties allied with the Congress Party in the United Progressive Alliance to support a common candidate in place of the Congress party's favorite Pranab Mukherjee . The offer of support for a candidacy by the BJP in the presidential election was made to Sangma and he was ready to run. This met with the rejection of the NCP party leadership, which Mukherjee wanted to support and on June 20, 2012 Sangma declared his resignation from the NCP. In the presidential election on July 19, 2012, Sangma was supported by only a few parties other than the BJP and received 30.15% of the vote. His opponent Mukherjee was elected with 68.12%.

The now independent Sangma stepped on August 23, 2012 to found his own party, the National People's Party (NPP), which after its founding almost the entire local party organization of the NCP in Meghalaya joined. The new party was intended to represent the interests of tribal populations across India.

In the 2014 parliamentary election , Sangma was elected for the last time as a member of the 2-Tura constituency in the Lok Sabha. On March 4, 2016, he unexpectedly died of a heart attack in New Delhi at the age of 68 . The NPP party leadership then took over his son Conrad Sangma .

On January 26, 2017, PA Sangma was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan , the second highest civilian award in India.

Personal and family

PA Sangma was married to Soradini K. Sangma since June 6, 1972, with whom he had two daughters (Agatha, Christie) and two sons (Conrad, James). Three of his children became politically active (first in the NCP and then in the NPP founded by their father). His daughter Agatha (* 1980) was from 2008 to 2014 the second youngest member of the Indian parliament for the constituency of Tura in Meghalaya and temporarily (2009–2012) State Secretary in the second cabinet of Manmohan Singh . The son Conrad Sangma has been Chief Minister of Meghalaya since 2018. The other son, James, is a MP in Meghalaya Parliament.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Former Speakers. The Ofiice of Speaker Lok Sabha, accessed on March 24, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Sixteenth Lok Sabha: Members Bioprofile: Sangma, Shri Purno Agitok. Lok Sabha website, accessed on March 24, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Albert Thyrniang: PA Sangma - A life well lived. The Shillong Times, March 7, 2016, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
4. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on March 24, 2018 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence). 
5. ↑ 'It isn't possible that a country of 980 million can have anyone other than an Indian-born to head its govt'. rediff.com, May 17, 1999, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
6. ↑ George IYPE: CWC expels threesome for six years. rediff.com, May 17, 1999, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Mamata Mamata's - A marriage of convenience. The Tribune of India, March 15, 2004, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
8. ^ Bye Election of Parliament Constituency of Meghalaya Parliament Constituency - 2-Tura. Election Commission of India, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Presidential poll: BJP draws a blank with Kalam, looks to Sangma. NDTV, June 18, 2012, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
10. ^ Purno gets Padma Vibhushan posthumously. The Shillong Times, January 6, 2017, accessed March 24, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Detailed Profile: Cum. Agatha K. Sangma. Lok Sabha website, accessed on March 24, 2018 .