Former Lok Sabha Speaker Bali Ram Bhagat Expired

Veteran Congress leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Bali Ram Bhagat died in New Delhi on 2 January 2010. Born in 1922 in Patna, Bhagat had joined Indian National Congress in 1939. In 1942 he had joined the Quit India Movement following which he had to remain underground for two years. He founded the All India Students Congress in 1944 and was also the General Secretary of the Bihar Pradesh Students Congress during 1946-47.

Bhagat was elected Speaker of the fifth Lok Sabha on 5 January 1976 when the post was vacant as a result of the resignation of Speaker Dr. G.S. Dhillon. He was the speaker in Lok Sabha at the time of Emergency.

He had served as the Governor of Rajasthan from 1993 to 1998. He had also served a short term as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh in 1993. In 1963 Bhagat became the Minister of State for Planning and held that post till January 1966. During 1963 to 1967, he was the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance. He also served as the Deputy Minister of Finance, a position in which he had continued in that position for a period of seven years.

He served as the Minister in the Ministry of Defence for a short period in 1967 before he went on to become the Minister of State for External Affairs the same year. He has also served as the Minister of Steel and Heavy Engineering for a period of eight months. He was elevated to the cabinet rank in 1969 when he became the Minister of Foreign Trade and Supply. He was also the Minister of External Affairs in Rajiv Gandhi Government in 1985-86.

Speaker Bhagat in 1976 inaugrated the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST) which is an integral Division of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, set up with a view to ensuring smooth, efficient and prompt services to the legislative bodies both at the Centre and in the State.

During the 'Quit India Movement', he had edited two underground weeklies- Our Struggle and Non-Violent Revolution. He had started Rashtra Doot, a progressive Hindi weekly from Patna in 1947.