Bindeshwari Dubey

Bindeshwari Dubey (14 January 1921 – 20 January 1993) was a freedom fighter, a veteran trade unionist and an able administrator who served as Chief Minister of Bihar between 25 March 1985 and 14 February 1988. He is popularly known as 'Majdoor Maseeha' (a god for labour class) among the people. People also used to call him 'Baba'.

Dubey was involved in the nationalisation of Indian collieries, especially in the Chhotanagpur region that was then a part of Bihar (now Jharkhand). He held the portfolios of Law, Justice and Labour in the Union Council of Ministers in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet. Earlier, he had held offices at state level as Minister of Education, Transport and Health. He was a member of the Seventh Lok Sabha between 1980 and 1984, representing the Giridih constituency in Bihar. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1988 until his death. Earlier he had been a member of Bihar Legislative Assembly during 1952-57, 1962–77 and 1985-88. He had also been a National as well as State President of INTUC besides being a Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee President.

Early life

Bindeshwari Dubey was the second of four sons born to a humble farming family in the village of Mahuaon, Bhojpur, Bihar. His father, Shiv Naresh Dubey, was a peasant and despite showing promise in school, Dubey's education was not considered important. This caused him to run away to Patna, where he lived with his maternal uncle and continued his studies at St. Michael High School, Patna. After his matriculation he worked on night-shifts in a factory as well as continuing to offer tuition to people as he had done during his school days in order to fund his education. He was eventually offered a place at the engineering college (now National Institute of technology, Patna) in Patna.

He married Shiv Shakti Devi and they had four daughters.

Freedom Movement

Dubey left his engineering studies to join the freedom movement. He has also participated in Quit India Movement in 1942. He was a part of the famous Young Turks of Bihar Congress during the independence movement along with Bhagwat Jha Azad, Chandrashekhar Singh, Satendra Narayan Sinha, Kedar Pandey, Abdul Ghafoor all future chief ministers and Sitaram Kesri, future national president of Indian National Congress ^[1] He encouraged members of his village to join the movement for independence of India and was among a group who set fire to the railway station at Patna, which resulted in him having to escape the attentions of the police by moving to Bermo, where he eventually got a job in a private colliery.

Chief Minister of Bihar

Dubey was a member of Bihar Legislative Assembly for five periods as a representative of the Bermo constituency, being 1952-57, 1962–67, 1967–69, 1969–72, 1972-77. Between 1985-88 he was again a member, this time for the Shahpur constituency.

He was variously minister of education, transport and health in the state of Bihar. He became Chief Minister on 25 March 1985 and held the post until 14 February 1988, gaining a reputation as a good organiser and motivator.^[1][2] He is considered as one of the best Chief Minister of Bihar. During his tenure the state's Credit Deposit Ratio had recorded a highest mark of 35% and the threshold was crossed later during the tenure of Nitish Kumar at the end of 2011-12 fiscal. Dubey was so popular as a Chief Minister that when then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi called him, considering his administrative abilities, to join his Union Cabinet, the then Opposition Leader of Bihar Karpoori Thakur reached Delhi to request Rajeev not to call Dubey as he was doing quite good as a Chief Minister of the state. However, his Chief Ministership was controversial and there were accusations of genocide and corruption.^[2] He launched the 'Operation Black Panther' in Champaran to free the area from the criminals and other anti-social elements. He also launched 'Operation Siddhartha' and 'Mafia Trial' to combat the MCC terrorist group and the Coal Mafias of Dhanbad, respectively.^[3][4]

Indian National Congress

Dubey became the President of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee in 1984 and resigned from it when he became the 21st Chief Minister of Bihar. Earlier he also served the party as a Hazaribag District Congress Committee President.

National offices

Dubey was a member of the Seventh Lok Sabha between 1980-1984 as a representative of the Giridih constituency in Bihar.^[1][5][6] In this election he defeated many political stalwarts like Ramdas Singh, Vinod Bihari Mahato, Chaplendu Bhattacharya, Lalchand Mahato and Shafique Khan.

He was Union minister for law and justice between 14 February - 26 June 1988,^[7][8][9] after which he was minister of labour until 1 December 1989.^[10]

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 3 April 1988 until his death, 20 January 1993.

Trade Unionism

Dubey was closely connected with the trade union movement in the coal, steel, engineering, power and sugar industries. He was also closely associated with Indian National Trade Union Congress and became its national president in 1981, having previously been a state president. He was also the president of many other labour unions, such as the Rastirya Colliery Mazdoor Sangh (RCMS), the Indian National Mineworkers Federation (INMF), and the Bokaro Steel Workers Union.

Dubey started his Trade Union movement in mid 1940s before independence when the collieries of India were in private hands where colliery owners and contractors used to exploit the contract labourers. He campaigned for better wages and working conditions for coal miners, visiting many countries like West Germany, U.K., Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Japan to acquaint himself with employment conditions in mines and factories. He represented the country at many international labour conferences and seminars.

Legacy

Among the numerous structures and institutions named in Dubey's honour are:

• A statue of him at Collectory Talaab, Ara, Bhojpur, Bihar.
• Bindeshwari Dubey Awasiya Mahavidyalaya, Pichhri, Bokaro, Jharkhand
• Bindeshwari Dubey Inter College, Bihiyan, Bhojpur, Bihar
• Bindeshwari Dubey Bridge

See also

• List of Chief Ministers of Bihar

References

Chief Ministers of Bihar
Sri Krishna Sinha Deep Narayan Singh Binodanand Jha Krishna Ballabh Sahay Mahamaya Prasad Sinha Satish Prasad Singh B. P. Mandal Bhola Paswan Shastri Harihar Singh Daroga Prasad Rai Karpoori Thakur Kedar Pandey Abdul Ghafoor Jagannath Mishra Ram Sundar Das Chandrashekhar Singh Bindeshwari Dubey Bhagwat Jha Azad Satyendra Narayan Sinha Lalu Prasad Yadav Rabri Devi Nitish Kumar Jitan Ram Manjhi