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obituary

Ramjanam Bhoomi temple in Ayod- rashtra and topped in sugar production. first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal
hya. A few leaders of inner circle were None in the Congress party had Nehru and was appointed president of
aware that it was a deliberate move to matching experience, caliber and grass- Youth Congress. He was also active in
upstage the secular leaders like him roots following than Tiwari. He served students’ politics and won the election
within the party. In spite of his oppo- Uttar Pradesh four times as its chief of Allahabad University student’s un-
sition, his successor, the new UP chief minister and full term chief minister ion. A post-graduate in political science
minister, Vir Bahadur Singh, had en- of Uttarakhand. Besides, He was union and having a law degree from the Alla-
dorsed this move, a brain child of the minister for Planning with Additional habad University, he could have joined
Rajiv’s coterie, comprising his Doon Charge of Labour, Deputy Chairman, the much-coveted civil services, he pre-
school’s non-political advisers. Planning Commission, Industry, ad- ferred to become a fighter.
Thereafter during NDT regime, ditional charge of the Ministry of Steel His interaction with the socialists led
stone-laying ceremony of the temple and Mines, Union Minister for Industry him to join the politics. His knowledge
was performed by Vishwa Hindu Pari- with additional charge of Ministry of of political-economy could match any
shad (VHP) after entering into agree- Petroleum and Natural Gas, External international scholar. It is difficult for
ment with the government of UP to Affairs and Finance and Commerce. the new generation politicians, who
the effect that they will not disturb the He had served all the four “Dhams” could be past masters in rhetoric, to
disputed structure and lay foundation of Indian politics as member of state understand his contribution to modern
stone outside the disputed land. Later assembly, state legislative council, Lok India, especially in an era when India’s
VHP willfully violated this agreement political horizon is having a large pres-
in 1992 during Kalayan Singh-led BJP ence of criminals.
rule. After the decline of Congress rule in
Dominated by the values for which ND Tiwari’s Uttar Pradesh, Tiwari tried his best for
Tiwari joined the national movement contribution to the resurgence of his party to change
had always been closed to his heart. He public discourse from path of com-
dreamt and conceived the idea of free national life began munalisation to development. He or-
India as a developed nation and always with ‘Quit India’ ganized and addressed “Vikas Yatras”
tried his best to serve those objectives. all over the Uttar Pradesh to change its
He is creator of Industrial hub of Uttar movement during focus. During his campaigning he made
Pradesh, popularly known as Noida and 1942-44 when he it a point to visit the places where any
Greater Noida and revolutionised auto- martyr sacrificed his life or there were
mobile sector in India. was in prison along any statues of martyrs. He reminded
He persuaded big automobile com- the people why he sacrificed for the
panies to come to India and also al- with his father nation? because, they wanted a strong,
lowed their partnership with Indian in- Poornanand Tiwari developed and self-reliant country,
dustry. Most popular car project Maruti where every citizens have freedom of
was also operationalized by him. The for 19 months thoughts, expressions, equality of op-
project was once conceived by late portunities, liberty and social harmony.
Sanjay Gandhi. Honda, DCM-Sriram, The political detractors of Tiwari
Toyota, Ford, Lohiya machines, Scooters Sabha and Rajya Sabha. He chaired the conspired with the Congress high com-
India, Hyundai Motors and many other Public Accounts Committee and was mand terming his yatras as a plan to
cars manufactures setup their units in member of Committee on Finance, uproot Rajiv Gandhi. This was not taken
India with the help of NDT. General Purposes Committee and Par- kindly by Congress leadership and re-
He also promoted electronic Indus- liamentary Pay Committee. He very sulted in sidelining him in party affairs.
try in Uttar Pradesh and hill areas of humbly and gracefully discharged the However, all these repressive measures
Uttarakhand which was earlier part duties and functions of the treasury and raised his political stature next to Rajiv
of the state. He also promoted public opposition benches of the largest de- Gandhi and he became the railing point
sector undertakings like Hindustan mocracy of the world. He represented for those Congressmen who were not
Machine Tools Ltd. (HMT) and Bharat the country in more than 75 countries inclined to accept him as next prime
Heavy Electricals Ltd.(BHEL) to setup as leader/member of Indian diplo- minister of the country.
their units in Uttar Pradesh and Utta- matic missions and always outshined I have personal knowledge that
rakhand. He was also involved in bring- with flying colours on international fo- many senior leaders who were suffo-
ing IFFCO units at Anola (Barelliy) and rums as an intellectually rich pleasing cated with the leadership and domi-
Phulpur (Allahabad). His vision for de- personality. nance of Gandhi-Nehru family includ-
velopment of sugar industries brought Ideologically, a true socialist, he ing PV Narsimha Rao, Arjun Singh and
Uttar Pradesh to compete with Maha- was picked up for Congress Party by many others have given go ahead signal

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