Published on: April 6, 2023
Jagjivan Ram
Jagjivan Ram
Why in news?Nation commemorates 116th birth anniversary of Jagjivan ram on April 5
Highlights:
- Jagjivan Ram known popularly as Babuji, was an Indian independence activist and politician from Bihar.
- He was instrumental in the foundation of the All India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables, in 1935 and was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1937, after which he organised the rural labour movement.
- He became the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s interim government, the first cabinet of India as a Labour Minister and also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution
- He was the Defence Minister of India during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.
- His contribution to the Green Revolution in India and modernising Indian agriculture, during his two tenures as Union Agriculture Minister are still remembered, especially during the 1974 drought when he was asked to hold the additional portfolio to tide over the food crisis
- He was a part of the prestigious high-profile Indian delegation that attended the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s International Labour Conference on 16 August 1947 in Geneva.
- Babu Jagjivan Ram holds the world record for being a parliamentarian for 50 uninterrupted years, from 1936 to 1986.
- In his honour, a memorial was built at the place of his cremation, now known as Samta Sthal, meaning “Place of Equality.”