Rabi Ray

Rabi Ray
9th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
In office 19 December 1989 – 9 July 1991
Deputy	Shivraj Patil
Preceded by	Balram Jakhar
Succeeded by	Shivraj Patil
Constituency	Kendrapara
Personal details
Born	(1926-11-26) 26 November 1926 Bhanagarh, Puri district
Political party	Janata Dal
As of 11 July, 2009 Source: [1]

Rabi Ray (born 26 November 1926) is an Indian socialist politician, a Gandhian, a former speaker of the Lok Sabha and a former Union minister. He hails from Orissa. He joined the Socialist Party in 1948, and later became member of the Samyukta Socialist Party, the Janata Party and the Janata Dal.

Early life

Ray was born on 26 November 1926 at Bhanaragarh village in the Puri district of Orissa, He passed his B.A. examination in History from the Ravenshaw College in Cuttack and later studied Law in the Madhusudan Law College in Cuttack.

Political career

Before joining active politics Shri Rabi Ray was a freedom fighter. In early 1947, when he was styding history in Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, he was arrested by British Army in connection with unrolling the National flag in Ravenshaw College. At the end of the day British Government had to listen to stdents demand for unfurling the tricolor Indian flag in Educational Institutions, though the country was still under foreign rule.

An ardent believer in socialism from his college days, Rabi Ray joined the Socialist Party as its member in 1948. Due to his innate qualities of leadership and his deep commitment to the socialist cause, he always remained in the forefront of the socialist movement. During 1953-54, he held the post of the Joint Secretary, All India Samajwadi Yuvak Sabha. In 1956, under the leadership of Dr. Rammanohar Lohia, he founded the Socialist Party in Orissa. He was also a member of the National Executive of the Socialist Party during that period. Later, in 1960, he became the General Secretary of the Party for about a year.

In 1967,he was elected to the 4th Lok Sabha from Puri constituency in Orissa. In the 4th Lok Sabha, he was the leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP). In 1974, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Orissa and he completed his term in Rajya Sabha in 1980. He was the Union minister of health and family welfare in Morarji Desai Ministry from January 1979 to January 1980.

In 1989, he was re-elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from the Kendrapara constituency in Orissa as a Janata Dal candidate. On 19 December 1989, he was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the 9th Lok Sabha. In 1991, he was re-elected to the 10th Lok Sabha from the same constituency. Since 1997, he is associated with a non-political organization, the Lok Shakti Abhiyan

Rabi Ray empowered with an inherent simplicity and transparent sincerity, ameliorated and improved the prestige and dignity of the office of the Speaker by his unbiased and judicious approach while he was the speaker of Lok Sabha.

He has been spearheading a people's movement through a non-political organisation Lok Shakti Abhiyaan since 1997 against corruption in high places, excessive centralisation and a decadent consumerist culture. He has also been touring different parts of the country in furtherance of ensuring probity and transparency in all spheres of our national life. He also contributes regularly articles on contemporary political and social issues to various leading journals in Oriya/ Hindi and English.

Awards

• Light Of Truth, 2002 (Rabi Ray, received the award on behalf of the people of India during the closing ceremony of the Tibetan Festival of Compassion on 18 December 2002.)
• Kalinga Ratna, 2008

External links

• Biography of Shri Rabi Ray at Winentrance.com
• Rabi Ray at The Office of Speaker Lok Sabha