Murli Deora

Murli Deora (January 10, 1937 – November 24, 2014) was an Indian politician, businessman, and social worker. He was the Mayor of Mumbai, a Member of Parliament in both the Upper and Lower Houses, and a Minister of Cabinet rank. He was a member of the Indian National Congress.

Deora was born in Mumbai, and received his BA from Mumbai University. His family came from Laxmangarh in Rajasthan.

In 2001, Deora successfully won a landmark Supreme Court case that ended smoking in public places.

The Supreme Court in Murli S Deora vs. Union of India and Ors., recognized the harmful effects of smoking in public and also the effect on passive smokers, and in the absence of statutory provisons at that time, prohibited smoking in public places such as,1.auditoriums, 2. hospital buildings, 3. health institutions, 4. educational institutions, 5.libraries, 6. court buildings, 7. public office, 8. public conveyances, including the railways.

"Tobacco is universally regarded as one of the major public health hazards and is responsible directly or indirectly for an estimated eight lakh deaths annually in the country. It has also been found that treatment of tobacco related diseases and the loss of productivity caused therein cost the country almost Rs. 13,500 crores annually, which more than offsets all the benefits accruing in the form of revenue and employment generated by tobacco industry".

— Supreme Court of India, Murli S. Deora vs Union Of India And Ors on 2 November 2001

A successful businessman, Deora started his political career in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation in 1968 when he was elected as a Corporator. In 1977 Deora was elected Mayor of Mumbai – one of the youngest ever. Deora first contested the LokSabha polls from the prestigious South Mumbai constituency in 1980 but lost to the Janata Party's RatansinghRajda. In the subsequent election, Deora defeated BJP's Jayawantiben Mehta by a huge margin. He was re-elected in 1989 and 1991 but lost to Mehta in 1996 and 1999 before his son, Milind, defeated Mehta to be elected from the same constituency in 2004.

Deora was President of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee for 22 years from 1981 to 2003.[2]

Deora was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2004, where he served till his death. From 29 January 2006 to 18 January 2011 he was appointed as Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas From 18 January 2011 to 12 July 2011 he was appointed as Minister of Corporate Affairs

The industrialist and social worker-turned-politician began his innings from the Mumbai Municipal Corporation way back in 1968 when he was elected corporator. Later, in 1977, Deora was elected mayor of Mumbai with Shiv Sena's support. Known for his close relations with politicians of all political parties, the arts graduate first contested the Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai South constituency in 1980 but lost to the Janata Party's Ratansingh Rajda though, in the subsequent election, Deora defeated BJP's Jayawantiben Mehta by a huge margin. He was re-elected in 1989, 1991 but lost to Mehta in 1996 and 1999 before his son, Milind, defeated Mehta to go to the Lok Sabha from the same constituency in 2004. Deora is a trusted aide of the Gandhi family in Mumbai. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2004 and was inducted in the Union cabinet as petroleum minister in January 2006.

He was president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee for 22 years from 1981 to 2003.

In the Congress re election in 2009, Deora retained the portfolio of Petroleum and Natural Gas in the second government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Free Computer Education

As Vice-Chairman of Bhavan’sGandhi Institute of Computer Technology, Deora made it his mission to spread computer literacy for better job opportunities by kickstarting the Free Computer Education Program.

In 2000, he brought Bill Gates to the center, which received a US $5million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its good work. An extremely happy Deora said, "It is a matter of great inspiration, incentive and impetus for us to receive such wonderfully large-hearted support from people like Mr. Gates. I wish the world had more and more of them who did not limit their charity to home but took it beyond to encourage all worthy causes in a spirit of promoting a world without barriers where the common, universal good of mankind alone mattered."

Thanking Mr. Gates for his outstanding gesture, Mr. Deora said the Bhavan's programme of setting up 50 centres all over India, of which 14 are already working, would march confidently ahead to achieve the target of training 50,000 students annually, creating a reservoir of computer trained people.

Today, the program has over 56 centers all over India, and over 3,56,519 people have benefitted from it.

Eye Camps

Deora believed everyone had the right to see properly, and organized over 78 eye camps in Mumbai, where more than 5000 to 7000 people have had their eyes tested and receive free spectacles, as well as free eye surgery and in every camp 300 to 400 Free Cataract operation with Pathological check up for operation has been done.

After Deora’s death, both houses of Parliament were adjourned on the first day of the winter session as a mark of respect for him, as well as other members who had passed away.

Tributes came in regardless of party lines, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing his sadness at Deora’s passing and said he had spoken to his family and “asked about his health” just the day before he died. He described Deora as “a dedicated leader,” who’s “warm nature made him popular across party lines.”

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley even penned a front-page tribute to Deora in the Times of India 6, calling him “extremely helpful” and someone who’s “strength lay in the fact that he never criticized even those he did not like”.

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said, “he was a very warm and kind-hearted person, and never turned away any person who came seeking his help and always kept his word.”[7]

Pranay Gupta, for The Huffington Post, noted that, “at a personal level, he was incorruptible”, and that, “perhaps more than any Indian politician of his generation, Murli was genuinely liked in public and private. That’s because he had a good word for all, and extended a helpful hand to many. To be a politician means to serve — and serve Murli did, in a land where ministers and bureaucrats often ignore the masses except during election time, where high officials expect their constituents to genuflect and undertake a thousand salaams before even being allowed to enter the corridors of power. But Murli’s door was always open.”

Shankar Aiyar, for the Times of India, spoke about Murli Deora’s humble beginnings, about “the Murli who wore the same set of clothes — washed at night and ironed "with a lotta with coal in it"; the Murli who hung outside the neighbour's window to listen to songs and studied under the street lamp at Babulnath”, and how, as a powerful politician, he used his contacts to help the poor and needy. How “every new billion-dollar acquaintance was converted into a philanthropist — convinced to donate a heart lung machine to a municipal hospital, pay for an eye camp, fund the computer literacy for jobs programme at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and more.”

Malavika Sangghvi penned a very personal tribute in the Mid-Day, saying, “in the end, it all comes down to kindness. Murli Deora was one of the kindest men I’ve known, a rare attribute in these times, almost unheard of in a politician.

Back in the days when I first got to know him in the early eighties, as a rookie reporter for the now defunct Bombay Magazine, the standing joke in the edit room was that if anyone, powerful or ordinary, man or woman, old or young, advantaged or disadvantaged even began to utter a sentence about some personal or professional woe, within Murli’s earshot, he would be immediately seized upon by the politician, coaxed into revealing all, and then, before he even knew it, from that moment on his problem or woe had become that of Deora’s, no questions asked. Murli wouldn’t rest until he’d solved it.

He did this with no agenda, no thought of reward or return, mostly anonymously and often unasked. And when you reminded him or alluded to his act of altruism, he’d blush as if caught red-handed, fidget awkwardly and change the subject.

Whether it was standing by a lost and defeated Indira Gandhi in her darkest days or arranging to have a slum child operated on by a leading doctor, it was all the same.

His humanity was a palpable unceasing river. Everyone was included. No one was turned away.”

His son Milind Murli Deora was a Lok Sabha member from Mumbai.