Kishan Kant, the vice-president elect, a school-and-college-friend of Prime Minister I K Gujral, is a veteran freedom fighter and Gandhian who has remained a conscientious dissenter all his political life.
Originally a congressman, Kant was expelled from the party for opposing the emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975. With former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Mohan Dharia, 70-year old Kant had formed the celebrated group of 'young turks', pushing for socialist policies of the Congress during 1960s and 1970s.
A true Gandhian and a freedom fighter, he is seen by political commentators as a deserving man for the vice-presidential slot in the golden jubilee year of India's independence. Kant took an active part in the Quit India movement of 1942 when he was a student in Lahore and was arrested along with members of his family.
His father, Lala Achint Ram, was a member of the constituent assembly and later a member of Parliament in independent India. Kant and Gujral took part in the freedom movement and went to jail together. Kant opposed the emergency and relentlessly fought against corruption in his chequered public life spanning five decades.
Born on february 28, 1927 in a village called Kot Mohammed Khan in Amritsar district of Punjab in a family of freedom fighters, Kant took an active part in the quit india movement during his student days.
He did his MSc (technology) from Banaras Hindu University and worked as a scientist at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Delhi. A versatile personality and a fine orator, kant was a member of the rajya sabha from 1966 to 1977 and subsequently a member of the lok sabha till 1980, he was associated with radical politics and the socialist forum.
Kant, who opposed declaration of the emergency in 1975, was expelled from the congress for extending support to issues raised by Jai Prakash Narayan. An ardent admirer of the socialist leader's unrelenting crusade against corruption, he was keen to rid the Congress of the influence of big money and first exposed the nexus between black money and elections through a letter to the then Congress president, ShankerDayal Sharma.
A pillar of bhoodan movement in Punjab, Kant championed land reforms without violence. Known for his consistent efforts to build up consensus on major national and international issues, Kant has been advocating since 1971 radical poll reforms to remodel the entire electoral process.
He had also enlisted the support of leaders of various political parties, including Atal Behari Vajpayee, kamalapati tripathi, c rajeshwar rao and e m s namboodiripad, to highlight criminalisation of politics.
His proposal to have a provision of a
