Viren J. Shah

Jeewanlal Motichand Shah had moved in early 1900 to Calcutta where, in Howrah area, he set up a facility for manufacture of aluminium utensils.

Viren J. Shah (12 May 1926 – 9 March 2013 ) was an Indian politician and businessman.

Viren J Shah was born in a middle-class family at Chittpore Road, Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 12 May 1926, the son of Jeewanlal Motichand Shah and Jayaben.

He lived in Calcutta till 1935, when his father left for his hometown in Gujarat and took up the presidency of Kathiawad Harijan Sevak Sangh and Khadi Prachar Sangh.

Viren Shah had his early education in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Nashik and Wardha.

He quit this business later and in 1939, took over Mukand Iron & Steel Works Ltd. with its factory in Lahore and at Reay Road, Bombay (now Mumbai) jointly with Jamnalal Bajaj at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi.

This company, set up by Lala Mukandlal of Lahore, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, was then on the verge of liquidation and Gandhiji persuaded Jeewanlal and Jamnalal to take over and run it in order to protect the livelihood of its employees.

Viren Shah was raised in the intensely political environment of India's struggle for freedom from British rule.

The Commerce College at Wardha, where he was a student, was closed by the Government in 1942, following agitation by the students in support of India's freedom struggle.

Many years later, he attended the six-week advanced management programme at Harvard Business School, US.

He was chairman of the board of visitors of St. George's Hospital, Mumbai – one of the largest public hospitals in Mumbai.

He was a Member of the Council of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and a member of the board of governors of the National Institute of Training in Industrial Engineering, Mumbai.

He served on the Central Advisory Committee of the Home Guards.

Shah was a member of Lok Sabha from 1967 to 1970 and of Rajya Sabha during 1975–1981 and 1990–1996.

He had served as treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Shah was chairman emeritus of Mukand Steel, a steel and engineering company in Mumbai, where he held the position of managing director for 27 years from 1972 to 1999.

He wrote often and once in the early 1980s ran a column in the fortnightly journal 'Business World' for over a year.

The wide variety of topics he chose for his column reflected the breadth of his interests and concerns.

His article on 'Sub-nationalisms', published in 'Business World' was uncanny in anticipating the strident demands now coming up for creation of new States in India.

He served as a Member of the National Integration Council (1990).

He actively campaigned for remedial action against Ingress of salinity in the South West Coast of Saurashtra in the State of Gujarat.

He was a keen campaigner, too, for prison reforms, having first-hand experience of the conditions in two of India's notorious prisons, and kept up over the years a steady stream of correspondence on the subject with authorities at all levels, prime minister downwards.

The economic reforms that commenced in India in the 1990s were substantially those that Viren Shah and his colleagues in politics canvassed assiduously since the 1960s.

The breadth of his outlook, marked by rare expansiveness of temperament, was such that he made friends easily all across the political spectrum: Communists, Socialists, Congressmen, Jan Sanghis et al. He worked with all, treating all of them as parts of one seamless web.

L.K. Advani recounts an anecdote involving Jyoti Basu, the Communist Party (Marxist) Chief Minister of West Bengal.

"I should recount an interesting incident that transpired six months after the formation of V.P. Singh's government. One day, Jyoti Basu sent a message to us from Calcutta through a common friend: 'This government is not functioning properly. I feel that the three of us – Atalji, you and I – should meet to discuss the situation. Why don't we meet for dinner at Viren Shah's residence in Delhi?'

"The message had come from Viren Shah, a well-known Mumbai-based industrialist who, though an office-bearer of the BJP for some time, was also a good acquaintance of Basu. The NDA government later appointed him Governor of West Bengal, after, of course, consulting with and getting enthusiastic concurrence from Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.

"Atalji and I welcomed the idea of an informal dinner meeting. Nonetheless, we were a little puzzled. We conveyed our response to the intermediary: 'We thank Jyotibabu for his suggestion. If he is interested in meeting us, we are prepared to go to Calcutta to meet him there. Otherwise, if he wants the meeting to take place in Delhi, he is most welcome to come to either Atalji's house or my house for dinner. But we don't understand why we should meet at some other place.' Basu sent us a prompt response. 'No one should know about our meeting. Especially, people in my party would not like it.'

"Ultimately, we met at Shah's residence…" (L K Adwani: 'My Country My Life', Rupa & Co., New Delhi, page 444–445)

His monograph on 'Technology Transfers', first published as 'Chairman's Statement' to the shareholders of Mukand Ltd. before the economic reforms in the early 1990s in India anticipated, again, the needs of the 'globalised' world.

Once an admirer of the Presidential system of government, a cause that he championed with great enthusiasm, he changed his opinion during his second term as a Member of Parliament and set out in detail his reasons, characterizing the presidential system as prone to be turned into dictatorship as in several third world countries or as designed to deadlock as in the United States of America.

He introduced in 1994 a 'Private Member's Resolution' on 'Atrocities against women' in the Rajya Sabha.

Though the resolution was supported by the house during the discussions, the ruling party then opposed it.

The resolution was then amended and before putting it to vote, the deputy chairman observed: "… because of the importance of the resolution, I have suspended all Rules and conventions of this House. But this will not become a precedent for future to be quoted anytime… Whatever is said is final."

The amended resolution, which included specific practical steps to deal with the issue, was passed unanimously.

He served as the 17th Governor of West Bengal from 1999 to 2004.

When industrialist Viren Shah's name was proposed as Governor of West Bengal in 1999, the proposal found easy acceptance by the Communist Chief Minister.

He assumed the office of the governor of West Bengal on 4 December 1999 and completed his term as governor on 14 December 2004.

His opinions on many of the enduring themes of discourse in India's national politics evolved over time.

Two months before his death, in January 2013, he wrote to former chief justice of India J. S. Verma who headed a committee appointed by the Government of India to recommend actions to curb violence against women, following an incident of gang rape in Delhi December 2012, forwarding with his letter a copy of the resolution.