Siddhartha Shankar Ray

Siddhartha Shankar Ray (20 October 1920 – 6 November 2010) was an Indian lawyer, diplomat and Indian National Congress politician from West Bengal.

Ray's sister is Justice Manjula Bose (1930–2016) who was a senior judge of the Calcutta High Court; along with Padma Khastagir, she was one of the first female judges of the Calcutta High Court.

Ray was also related to Sudhi Ranjan Das, a former Chief Justice of India and Satish Ranjan Das, a former Advocate General of Bengal and a Law Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council.

Ray studied at, Mitra Institution, Bhowanipore Branch, Calcutta, Presidency College, Calcutta and University Law College, of the University of Calcutta.

In college and university, he was active in both sports and politics.

In 1939, he was the captain of the victorious Presidency College football team which won both the Elliot and Hardinge Birthday Shields.

He was also interested in lawn tennis and table tennis.

In 1941, he was elected as student Under-Secretary in the Calcutta University Institute Elections and was put in charge from time to time of various departments including Students' Aid Fund, Debates, Sports and Socials.

He was also the Debate Secretary and later the General Secretary of the Calcutta University Law College Union.

As a sportsman he captained the Presidency College cricket team.

He was the captain of the team that won the Inter Collegiate cricket Championship in 1944.

He had scored three double centuries and 1000 runs for three consecutive seasons.

He was also a keen footballer in Calcutta playing for the Kalighat Club.

He was a University Blue in this sport and represented the Calcutta University in inter-varsity matches.

Upon his return from England in 1946, Ray joined the Calcutta Bar as a junior of Justice Ramaprasad Mukherjee, who later became a Judge and Chief Justice (Acting) of the High Court of Calcutta.

Later Ray was called to the bar by the Honourable Society of Inner Temple, London, in 1947.

While in London he played cricket for the Indian Gymkhana Club.

In 1954 he became one of the three junior Central Government counsels in Calcutta.

In 1957 he was elected as an MLA from the Bhowanipore seat which he won by a large majority, becoming the youngest member of the West Bengal Cabinet under the leadership of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

He was appointed Minister of Law & Tribal Welfare.

However, after one year, he resigned from his ministerial portfolios & Congress party membership, citing differences with Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

In 1962, he was re-elected from the Bhowanipore seat as an Independent MLA.

In 1967 he rejoined the Congress party & was elected as an MLA from Chowranghee that year, which he retained in the next state election.

When the Congress split in 1969, Ray sided with Indira Gandhi's faction.

From 1969 to 1971, he was the Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly during the Second United Front Government.

In 1971 Indian general election, he won the Raiganj seat & became the Union Cabinet Minister of Education & Youth Services under Indira Gandhi.

He was also the Union Cabinet Minister of West Bengal & Bangladesh Affairs & was actively involved with the matters of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

In his political career he held a number of offices, including Chief Minister of West Bengal (1972–77), Union Minister of Education (1971–72), Governor of Punjab (1986–89) and Indian Ambassador to the United States (1992–96).

He was, at one point, the main troubleshooter for the Congress Party.

Ray was born in a Bengali Baidya family.

Ray's father, Sudhir Kumar Ray, was a well known barrister of Calcutta High Court and a member of the Indian National Congress and his mother Aparna Devi, was the elder daughter of the barrister and nationalist leader Chittaranjan Das and Basanti Devi grew up in England.

After the Congress(R) won the assembly election of 1972, he became the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 20 March 1972 to 30 April 1977 after being elected from the Maldaha seat in a bypoll.

His administration was faced with the massive problem of resettling over a million refugees from East Pakistan fleeing war & the campaign of genocide of Bengalis launched by the Pakistani military in various parts of the state.

He also undersaw the crackdown on Maoist insurgents in the state.

His rule was characterised by widespread political violence against supporters of CPI(ML) (which consisted of mostly students studying in colleges & universities) & other Communist parties, which often involved political murders & extra-judicial killings by the state police force.

Under Section 47(c) of the Calcutta Municipal Act of 1951 Ray had the Governor let the Calcutta Municipal Corporation be superseded by the state government, effectively dissolving the Communist-led mayoral council of Calcutta from 22nd March 1972.

No further election to the post of mayor was held during his tenure.

Ray was instrumental in passing the West Bengal Panchayat Act of 1973, which changed the pre-existing 4-tier panchayat system into the current 3-tier panchayat system.

The West Bengal Panchayat Act of 1973 was one of his biggest achievements.

This system was implemented nationally as the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India in 1992.