Shankar Dayal Sharma

Shankar Dayal Sharma (19 August 1918 – 26 December 1999) was an Indian lawyer and politician from the state of Madhya Pradesh who served as the ninth president of India, from 1992 to 1997.

Born in Bhopal, Sharma studied at Agra, Allahabad and Lucknow and received a doctorate in constitutional law from the University of Cambridge and was a bar-at-law from Lincoln's Inn and a Brandeis Fellow at Harvard University.

Shankar Dayal Sharma was born on 19 August 1918 in Bhopal, then the capital of the princely state of Bhopal, in a Hindu Brahmin family.

Sharma completed his schooling in Bhopal and then studied at St. John's College, Agra and at the Allahabad and Lucknow universities obtaining a MA in English, Hindi and Sanskrit and an L.L.M. He topped both the courses, was awarded the Chakravarty Gold Medal for social service, and was a thrice swimming champion at Lucknow University and cross country running champion at Allahabad.

He obtained a doctorate in constitutional law from University of Cambridge for his thesis on Interpretation of Legislative Powers under Federal Constitutions and received a diploma in public administration from the University of London.

Sharma began practicing law at Lucknow from 1940 where he taught law at the University and soon joined the Indian National Congress.

In 1946, he was admitted to the Lincoln's Inn and taught at Cambridge University during 1946–47.

The following year, he was appointed a Brandeis Fellow at Harvard University.

During 1948–49, Sharma was one of the leaders of the movement for the merger of Bhopal State with India, a cause for which he served eight months' imprisonment.

During 1948–49, Sharma underwent eight months' imprisonment for his leadership of the popular movement for merging the princely state of Bhopal with India.

Although the Nawab of Bhopal had acceded his state to the Dominion of India, he had held out against signing the Instrument of Accession.

The popular movement had the support of the Praja Mandal and an interim government with Chatur Narain Malviya as its head was constituted by the Nawab in 1948.

However, as the movement gained support, the Nawab dismissed this government.

Public pressure and the intervention of V. P. Menon led the Nawab to merge his state with the Indian Union in 1949 with the princely state reconstituted as Bhopal State.

Sharma was president of the Bhopal State Congress Committee (1950–52), Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (1966–68) and of the All India Congress Committee (1972–74).

Sharma was president of the Bhopal State Congress during 1950 to 1952.

A member of the Indian National Congress party, Sharma was chief minister (1952–56) of Bhopal State and served as a cabinet minister (1956–1971) in the government of Madhya Pradesh holding several portfolios.

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Bhopal from Berasia in the elections of 1952 and became chief minister of Bhopal State in 1952.

In 1956, following the reorganization of states, Bhopal State was merged with the new state of Madhya Pradesh.

Sharma played an important role in retaining Bhopal as the capital of this new state.

In the elections of 1957, 1962 and 1967, Sharma was elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Udaipura as a candidate of the Congress party.

During this time he was a cabinet minister in the Madhya Pradesh government and variously held portfolios of education, law, public works, industry and commerce and revenue.

As minister for education, he emphasized secular pedagogy in schools and textbooks were revised to avoid religious bias.

During 1967–68, he was president of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee and served as general secretary of the party from 1968 to 1972.

Prior to his appointment as president, Sharma had been a member of the Congress Working Committee since 1967 and general secretary of the Congress party from 1968.

As president, Sharma launched a public campaign against the CIA accusing it of being actively involved in fomenting violence in India.

During the split in 1969, Sharma sided with Indira Gandhi and was removed from party posts by the President S. Nijalingappa but reappointed by Gandhi in her faction of the party.

Sharma was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhopal in the general elections of 1971.

The following year, he was made the president of the Indian National Congress by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He served as Union Minister for Communications (1974–77) under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In October 1974, Sharma was appointed Minister of Communications in the Indira Gandhi ministry and was succeeded as president of the Congress by D. K. Barooah.

He remained in that post until his defeat in the general election of 1977 by Arif Baig.

Twice elected to the Lok Sabha, Sharma served as governor of Andhra Pradesh (1984–85), Punjab (1985–86) and Maharashtra (1986–87) before being elected unopposed as the eighth vice president of India in 1987.

Sharma was elected president of India in 1992 and served till 1997 during which period he dealt with four prime ministers, three of whom he appointed in the last year of his presidency.

He was assertive with the P. V. Narasimha Rao ministry, forcing his government to sack a governor, instigating a strong response to the demolition of the Babri Masjid and refusing to sign ordinances presented to him on the eve of elections.

His appointment of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister on the grounds of him being the leader of the largest party in the Parliament attracted widespread criticism especially as Vajpayee was forced to resign in only thirteen days without facing a vote of confidence.

Sharma's appointment of H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral as prime ministers followed the assurance of support to their candidature by the Congress party but neither government lasted more than a year.

Sharma chose not to seek a second term in office and was succeeded to the presidency by K. R. Narayanan.

Sharma died in 1999 and was accorded a state funeral.

His samadhi lies at Karma Bhumi in Delhi.