Ananth Kumar

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Ananth Kumar
The Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Ananth Kumar addressing the Media on the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), in New Delhi on May 12, 2017.jpg
Kumar addressing the media, 2017
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
In office
5 July 2016 – 12 November 2018
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byVenkaiah Naidu
Succeeded byNarendra Singh Tomar
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
In office
26 May 2014 – 12 November 2018
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded bySrikant Kumar Jena
Succeeded byD. V. Sadananda Gowda
Minister of Civil Aviation
In office
19 March 1998 – 13 October 1999
Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded byC. M. Ibrahim
Succeeded bySharad Yadav
Member of the Indian Parliament
for Bangalore South
In office
1996 – 12 November 2018
Preceded byK. Venkatagiri Gowda
Succeeded byVacant
Personal details
Born(1959-07-22)22 July 1959
Bengaluru, Mysore State
(now Karnataka), India
Died12 November 2018(2018-11-12) (aged 59)[1]
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s)
Tejaswini Kumar (m. 1989)
Children2
Alma materKarnatak University
Websiteananth.org

Hegannahalli Narayan Ananth Kumar (22 July 1959 – 12 November 2018)[2] was an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Kumar served as the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs from 2014 till his death in 2018. He was a member of the Parliament for over two decades, having been elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house, from Bengaluru South, from 1996 till his death.[3]

Early life[edit]

Ananth Kumar was born on 22 July 1959 in Bangalore, Karnataka, into a middle-class Brahmin family.[4] His father, H. N. Narayan Sastry, was employed with the Indian Railways and mother Girija, was a social worker associated with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. She served as the deputy mayor of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation between 1985 and 1986. The family settled in Hubli in 1979–80. Kumar completed his matriculation in Lamington School and pre-university course in science PC Jabin College in Hubli. He earned bachelor's degree in arts from Kadasiddeshwar Arts College, affiliated to the Karnatak University, and in Laws from JSS Law college, both in Hubli.[5]

Kumar joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1973 and took part in the movement started by Jayaprakash Narayan the following year. He was jailed in the Hubli sub-jail for a period of 40 days during the emergency.[6][5]

Politics[edit]

Kumar was an active member of RSS' student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He was elected as the State Secretary of the ABVP and later, became its National Secretary in 1985. He later joined BJP in 1987 and was nominated as the State President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.[6] He was then made National Secretary of the party in 1996.[7]

Kumar was elected from Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996. In January 1998, ahead of the general election that year, Kumar became the first Indian politician to host an independent website when he launched www.dataindia.com and www.ananth.org.[8] He was re-elected and was inducted into the union cabinet headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Minister for Civil Aviation, and was the youngest cabinet minister in that government. In 1999, he was re-elected to a third consecutive term and became a cabinet minister in the National Democratic Alliance government. He handled various ministries like Tourism, Sports & Youth Affairs, Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.[7]

Kumar became the President of the Karnataka state unit of BJP in 2003 and led the state unit which became the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly and won the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in 2004 in Karnataka. In 2004, he was appointed National General Secretary of the BJP contributing to building the party in MP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and other states.

On 26 May 2014, Kumar was appointed Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers in the cabinet of the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[9] In the 2016 reshuffle, he was given the additional charge of Parliamentary Affairs. [10]

He had never faced electoral defeat in any of the Lok Sabha elections he contested. [11]

Lok Sabha Electoral Performance

Year Winner Party Losing candidate Party
2014 Ananth Kumar BJP Nandan Nilekani INC
2009 Ananth Kumar BJP K Byre Gowda INC
2004 Ananth Kumar BJP Krishnappa M INC
1999 Ananth Kumar BJP B K Hariprasad INC
1998 Ananth Kumar BJP D P Sharma INC
1996 Ananth Kumar BJP Varalakshmi Gundu Rao INC

Governance[edit]

As the minister for chemicals and fertilizers, Kumar implemented 100% mandatory neem-coating of urea, in a move that was expected to save ₨ 10,000 crore per annum [12] on account of stopping diversion for industrial usage, apart from additional benefit of slowing the release of nitrogen, thus reducing the overall consumption.[13]

Kumar introduced price controls on stents to make them affordable and slashed prices by upto 85% benefiting over 1 lakh patients due to resultant savings of above ₨ 5,500 crore annually.[14] While some MNCs threatened to pull out their stents from the Indian market claiming that their erstwhile price premium was due to better quality, studies showed that Indian-made stents were equally good.[15]

Social work[edit]

He along with his wife founded a nonprofit Adamya Chetana Foundation, a nonprofit social service organisation to work on social service activities. It was setup in 1998 in memory of Girija Shastry the mother of Ananth Kumar.[1] It supports underprivileged children with food in schools through the mid-day meals programme.[16] About 2,00,000 meals are served daily.[17]

He launched the initiative Green Bengaluru 1:1 to achieve 1 tree per human ratio, from the current 7 humans per tree as against the ideal 7 trees per human per research by IISc. EcoChetana initiative was to promote GreenLifeStyle in the state of Karnataka.[18][19]

As part of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) Ananth Kumar had adopted the Ragihalli village.[20]

Death[edit]

On 12 November 2018 he died due to lung cancer and other related complications.[21] He is survived by his wife, Dr. Tejaswini, and his two daughters, Aishwarya and Vijeta.[22][23]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Ananth Kumar: Union Minister Ananth Kumar passes away". K R Balasubramanyam. The Economic Times. 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  2. ^ Moudgal, Sandeep (12 November 2018). "Union minister Ananth Kumar passes away at 59 in Bengaluru". The Times of India. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  3. ^ Dutta, Prabhash K. (12 November 2018). "Ananth Kumar never lost an election in 22 years". India Today. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  4. ^ "Who was Ananth Kumar". The Indian Express. 12 November 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  5. ^ a b Kattimani, Basavaraj (13 November 2018). "Hubballi shaped political career of Ananth Kumar". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  6. ^ a b Pattanashetti, Girish (13 November 2018). "Ananth Kumar had his initiation into politics in Hubballi". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  7. ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  8. ^ "Ananth Kumar is the first Indian MP to host an independent website for a candidate". Rediff.com. 29 January 1998. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  9. ^ "Narendra Modi government: Full list of portfolios and ministers". The Indian Express. 27 May 2014.
  10. ^ "Union minister Ananth Kumar passes away". 13 November 2018.
  11. ^ "Ananth Kumar, a man who never saw electoral defeat". Deccan Herald. 12 November 2018.
  12. ^ "Neem coated urea to stop divergence for industrial use: Government". The Economic Times. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  13. ^ Datta, Kanika (16 February 2016). "Neem-coated truth: Urea policy isn't a game-changer". Business Standard. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  14. ^ "Government to continue with price control on stents". The Indian Express. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  15. ^ Nagarajan, Rema (16 November 2018). "It's official, Indian-made stents as good as the best". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  16. ^ "Adamya Chetana – Anna Akshara Arogya". Adamyachetana.org. Retrieved 14 October 2018.[self-published source]
  17. ^ "`Our Annapoorna kitchens are paathshaalas, prayogashaalas too' - Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  18. ^ "Green Bengaluru 1:1 – Adamya Chetana". Adamyachetana.org. Retrieved 14 October 2018.[self-published source]
  19. ^ NewsKarnataka. "Adamya Chetana launches Sasyagraha in Bengaluru". NewsKarnataka. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  20. ^ "ರಾಗಿಹಳ್ಳಿ ಗ್ರಾಪಂ ದತ್ತು ಪಡೆದ ಅನಂತಕುಮಾರ್". Kannada.oneindia.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  21. ^ "Ananth Kumar passes away LIVE UPDATES: PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi express grief". 12 November 2018.
  22. ^ "Union Minister Ananth Kumar passes away; holiday in schools, colleges in Karnataka today". Times Now News. 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  23. ^ "The ever smiling Ananth Kumar: From a whisper in Karnataka to becoming it's voice in the Centre". Newsd www.newsd.in. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
Lok Sabha
Preceded by
K. V. Gowda
Member of Parliament
for Bangalore South

1996 – Present
Succeeded by
Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
C. M. Ibrahim
Minister of Civil Aviation
19 March 1998 – 13 October 1999
Succeeded by
Sharad Yadav
Preceded by
Madan Lal Khurana
Minister of Tourism
30 January 1999 – 13 October 1999
Succeeded by
Uma Bharti
Preceded by
Uma Bharti
Minister of Tourism
2 February 2000 – 1 September 2001
Succeeded by
Jagmohan
Preceded by
Srikant Kumar Jena
Minister of State
(Independent Charge)
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
26 May 2014 – 12 November 2018
Succeeded by
D. V. Sadananda Gowda
Preceded by
Venkaiah Naidu
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
5 July 2016 – 12 November 2018
Succeeded by
Narendra Singh Tomar

External links[edit]