Balram Jakhar

Balram Jakhar
14thGovernor of Madhya Pradesh
In office 20 July 2004 – 19 July 2009
Chief Minister	Uma Bharti Babulal Gaur Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Preceded by	Lt. Gen.K. M. Seth(Acting)
Succeeded by	Rameshwar Thakur
Governor of Gujarat
Additional Charge
In office 12 July 2004 – 24 July 2004
Chief Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Kailashpati Mishra
Succeeded by	Nawal Kishore Sharma
19thMinister of Agriculture
In office 21 June 1991 – 17 January 1996
Prime Minister	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Preceded by	Devi Lal
Succeeded by	Jagannath Mishra
8thSpeaker of the Lok Sabha
In office 22 January 1980 – 27 November 1989
Deputy	G. Lakshmanan M. Thambi Durai
Preceded by	K. S. Hegde
Succeeded by	Rabi Ray
Leader of Opposition of the Punjab Legislative Assembly
In office 19 June 1977 – 17 February 1980
Preceded by	Prakash Singh Badal
Succeeded by	Prakash Singh Badal
Personal details
Born	(1923-08-23)23 August 1923 Panjkosi,Punjab,British India
Died	3 February 2016(2016-02-03)(aged 92) Delhi,India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Children	Sunil Jakhar,Sajjan Jakhar, Surinder Jakhar
Parent(s)	Rajaram Jakhar (father) and Paato Devi (mother)
Profession	Farmer,Politician

Balram Jakhar(23 August 1923 – 3 February 2016) was an Indian politician, who served as theSpeaker of the Lok SabhaandGovernor of Madhya Pradesh.He was also the longest servingSpeaker of the Lok Sabha,whose tenure lasted 9 years and 329 days. Jakhar was among the popular faces of Jat politics in Rajasthan during 1980s. He served as theMinister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfarefrom 1991 to 1996 in Government of India. He was a member ofIndian National Congress.

Early life and education

Jakhar was born in a HinduJatfamily inPanjkosivillage ofFazilka districtin Punjab now inFazilkaon 23 August 1923. His father was Chaudhari Rajaram Jakhar and his mother was Pattodevi Jakhar migrated to Pankosi fromMontgomery DistrictofWest Punjabin 1900.Jakhar earned a degree inSanskritfromForman Christian College,Lahore,in 1945. He had knowledge of English,Punjabi,Urdu,Sanskrit andHindilanguages.

Political career

A lifelong member of theCongress party,Jakhar founded the Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, a farmers' organization, in 1965. He was elected to thePunjab Legislative Assemblyin 1972 and was re-elected in 1977, becoming the Leader of the Opposition.

Speaker Jakhar (center) withPandit Ram Kishore ShuklaandQueen Elizabeth The Queen Motherat a Commonwealth Conference.

Jakhar then moved to national politics. He was elected in 1980 to the seventhLok SabhafromFerozepurand in 1984 to the eighth Lok Sabha fromSikar.He had the distinction of being elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha during his very first term in the house. Furthermore, served twice asSpeaker of Lok Sabha,a rare achievement in Indian parliament history, holding office from 1980 to 1989, thus became the longest serving speaker in history. As Speaker of Lok Sabha, he promoted automation and computerization of Parliamentary works. He promoted Parliament library, reference, research, documentation and information services for the knowledge and use of members of Parliament. The establishment ofParliament Museumwas his contribution. He was the first Asian to be elected Chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentarian Executive Forum.

He was an attendee of the secondProvisional World Parliamentheld inNew Delhion March 17, 1985.

The Sikar parliamentary seat was won byDevi Lalin the elections of 1989. In 1991, Jakhar was again elected to parliament from the Sikar constituency and his party returned to power in India. Jakhar was made Union Agriculture minister under Prime MinisterP. V. Narasimha Raoin 1991.

After the Congress party returned to power in 2004, he was appointed Governor ofMadhya Pradeshand served from 30 June 2004 to 30 May 2009.

Personal life

Jakhar was born into an affluent land-owningHinduJatfamily. His father was Chaudhari Rajaram Jakhar and his mother was Pattodevi Jakhar. Balram Jakhar was the father of three sons:

• Sajjan Kumar Jakhar, the eldest son, is a former minister in thePunjabgovernment. Father of Ajay Vir Jakhar.
  • Ajay Vir Jakhar, son of Sajjan Kumar Jakhar, is Chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj, a farmer organization, and writes frequently on farmer issues in reputed newspapers.
• Surinder Jakhar, second son, died of a self-inflicted bullet injury (probably accidental) in 2011. Surinder served as chairman of Asia’s cooperative fertiliser giantIFFCOfor four terms and chief of Asian Cooperative Alliance for two terms.Surinder is the father ofSandeep Jakhar.
  • Sandeep Jakhar,son of Surinder Jakhar, is one of very few candidates who managed to win on a Congress party ticket in thePunjab assembly election of 2022.
• Sunil Jakhar,youngest son. Before resigning from the party in 2022, Sunil was long a member of his father'sCongressparty. He is a three timeMLAfromAbohar.He became Leader of the Opposition in Punjab in March 2012. He was elected to parliament fromGurdaspurin 2017 and was made President of his party's Punjab unit the same year. He leftthe partyon 14th May 2022. He is currently serving as President ofBharatiya Janata Party, Punjabunit since 4th July 2023.

External links

• .4 April 2005https://web.archive.org/web/20050404064123/http://mpinfo.org/hindi/governor/aboutgov.htm.Archived fromthe originalon 4 April 2005.Retrieved20 January2019.{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title=(help)
• "IFFCO chairman Surinder Jakhar shot dead accidentally".Archive.is.15 July 2011. Archived fromthe originalon 15 July 2011.Retrieved20 January2019.