Syama Prasad Mookerjee

Context (TH): The Prime Minister paid tributes to Syama Prasad Mookerjee on his death anniversary.

He was an Indian barrister, educationist, politician, activist, social worker, and a minister in the state and national governments.

About Syama Prasad Mookerjee

He was born on July 6, 1901, in Calcutta, Bengal Province.
His father, Ashutosh Mukherjee, was a judge of the High Court of Calcutta, Bengal Presidency.
He earned a BA, MA, and LLB from Calcutta University and became a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in 1927.
He died on 23^rd June 1953 while in custody of the Jammu & Kashmir police in Srinagar.

At age 33, he became the youngest Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University (1934–1938).
He entered the Bengal Legislative Council (BLC) as an Indian National Congress (INC) candidate representing Calcutta University.
In 1937, he was elected as an independent candidate in the elections, which brought the Krishak Praja Party to power.
He became the President of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha (1943 to 1946).
He served as the Finance Minister of Bengal Province in 1941-42 under A.K. Fazlul Haq’s Progressive Coalition government.

He is noted for his opposition to the Quit India Movement launched in 1942.

Mookerjee was elected to the Constituent Assembly from West Bengal on a Congress Party ticket.
He served as India’s first Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s interim government in 1947. He later resigned in 1950 over the issue of the Delhi Pact with Liaquat Ali Khan.
He founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 1951.
During his time in Parliament, Mookerjee was a strong opponent of Article 370. He launched a hunger strike in protest against the Union Government’s policies in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.