- Madhavrao Scindia
Madhavrao Scindia (1945–
30 September 2001) was a prominentIndia n politician and minister from theCongress Party . He was born into theScindia family, who formerly ruledGwalior .Early life
Born on
March 10 ,1945 , Madhavrao Scindia was the son of the last ruling Maharaja of Gwalior,Jivajirao Scindia . He was educated at theScindia School , endowed by his family, in Gwalior, and then atOxford University . After Indian independence in 1947, his father acceded to the Indian government, and the kingdom of Gwalior became part of the new state ofMadhya Bharat , which in 1956 was merged intoMadhya Pradesh . Madhavrao followed the political tradition laid down by his motherRajmata Vijayraje Scindia , who was elected to theLok Sabha (parliament) in 1962.Electoral victories
A nine-term member of the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia never lost an election since 1971, when he won for the first time from Guna at the age of 26. He contested as an independent with the support of the Jan Sangh, a party that his family had for long patronised. In 1977, he switched to the
Congress Party despite resistance from his larger family, and won the seat a second time. In order to avoid a direct contest with his mother, he ran from the neighbouring constituency of Guna. But in 1984, he was nominated the Congress candidate in Gwalior as a last-minute manoeuvre to defeat theBharatiya Janata Party 'sAtal Behari Vajpayee , and won by a massive margin. Since then Scindia contested from either Gwalior or Guna and won on each occasion.Ministerial stints
The 1984 election brought Scindia his first experience as a Minister. He made his mark as an excellent administrator during his stint as Railways Minister in the
Rajiv Gandhi Ministry. He is credited with the modernisation and computerisation ofIndian Railways and with maintaining the most cordial and professional relationship with his managerial cadres.Prime Minister
P. V. Narasimha Rao made him Minister for Civil Aviation. He faced a turbulent period of agitation by the staff of the domestic carrier,Indian Airlines , and as part of a strategy of disciplining the workforce he leased a number of aircraft fromRussia . Early in 1992 one of these aircraft crashed, though without any loss of life, and Scindia promptly submitted his resignation. Although not known to be too finicky about such notions as ministerial accountability, the prime minister accepted his resignation. Scindia was later reinducted into the Cabinet in 1995 as Minister for Human Resource Development. Scindia is also accredited with set up of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management(IIITM) at Gwalior as an institution of repute. Unfortunately the IIITM was renamed after Atal Behari Vajpayee as ABV-IIITM missing out the contributions of Madhav Rao Scindia by the NDA government.Rebellion and return
In 1996, he along with
Arjun Singh and other Congress dissidents had the opportunity to be part of theUnited Front (U.F.) government at the Centre. Although his Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress was part of the U.F., Scindia himself opted to stay out of the Cabinet. His first priority obviously was to return to the Congress and resume his old political bonds. His opportunity came when Narasimha Rao was ousted as Congress president after a string of indictments in corruption cases.Scindia's political role and influence within the Congress party grew rapidly and he was seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate. His tragic demise in a plane crash demolished many hopes.
His son,
Jyotiraditya Scindia is a Member of Parliament elected to the seat that he held. His daughter is married to the Crown Prince ofKashmir .He was the President of the
Board of Control for Cricket in India from 1990 to 1993.His Literary Tastes
Scindia had a deep interest and commitment to literary activities. Thus instead of restricting his visits to political meetings, he was often the guest of honor in literary and cultural programs. On such occasions people used to request him to recite a poem after his formal lecture was over. He always used to oblige people by reciting choice poems or
Urdu shayari.tyles
From 1961 until the abolition of titles under
Indira Gandhi , Scindia was known as "His Highness Ali Jah, Umdat ul-Umara, Hisam us-Sultanat, Mukhtar ul-Mulk, Azim ul-Iqtidar, Rafi-us-Shan, Wala Shikoh, Muhtasham-i-Dauran,Maharajadhiraj Maharaja Shrimant Madhav Rao III ScindiaBahadur , Shrinath, Mansur-i-Zaman,Maharaja Scindia ofGwalior ."Death
Scindia died in a plane crash in 2001 [http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/10/02/stories/05022511.htm] . His son Jyotiraditya became the new head of the family in a Hindu ceremony which officially handed the King's turban to the young
Maharaja [http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/10/13/stories/0213000h.htm] .
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