Rajesh Pilot

Rama Pilot

Description

Rajesh Pilot rose in the political scene of the 1980s — when Indira Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi helmed the country. This is his incredible story. A farmer, he first came to Delhi to work as a milk-man in his uncle’s dairy. But young Rajeshwar Prasad was ambitious. He put himself through flying school and became a pilot in the Indian Air Force. Years later, in 1979, he met the then Congress president Indira Gandhi and told her that he wanted to fight elections. On a whim, Mrs Gandhi gave him a ticket. Pilot quit the Air Force and contested elections, winning first from Bharatpur and then from Dausa. At various points, he also served as minister for Telecommunications, Internal Security and Environment. An energetic and ever-smiling member of the Congress Party, he was always at the centre of every happening.
Written by his wife Rama Pilot, this personal biography is a celebration of life of a mass leader.

Sujets

• Political
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Internal security
• Rajesh Pilot
• Dausa
• Milkman
• Environment
• Congress
• Politics
• Non-fiction
• Indian Air Force
• Bharatpur
• Autobiography
• Farmer
• Indira Gandhi
• Télécommunications

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 08 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788193600924
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

RAJESH
PILOT
 
OTHER LOTUS TITLES Ajit Bhattacharjea Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah: Tragic Hero of Kashmir Anil Dharker Icons: Men & Women Who Shaped Today’s India Aitzaz Ahsan The Indus Saga: The Making of Pakistan Ajay Mansingh Firaq Gorakhpuri: The Poet of Pain & Ecstasy Alam Srinivas & T.R. Vivek IPL: The Inside Story Alam Srinivas Women of Vision: Nine Business Leaders in Conversation Amarinder Singh The Last Sunset: The Rise & Fall of the Lahore Durbar Bertil Falk Feroze: The Forgotten Gandhi Hamish Mcdonald Ambani & Sons Kunal Purandare Ramakant Achrekar: A Biography Lucy Peck Agra: The Architectural Heritage Lucy Peck Delhi a Thousand Years of Building: An INTACH- Roli Guide Madan Gopal My Life and Times: Munshi Premchand M.J. Akbar Byline M.J. Akbar Blood Brothers: A Family Saga Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo Param Vir: Our Heroes in Battle Maj. Gen. Ian Cardozo The Sinking of INS Khukri: What Happened in 1971 Madhu Trehan Tehelka as Metaphor Monisha Rajesh Around India in 80 Trains Noorul Hasan Meena Kumari: The Poet Peter Church Added Value: The Life Stories of Indian Business Leaders Peter Church Profiles in Enterprise: Inspiring Stories of Indian Business Leaders Rajika Bhandari The Raj on the Move: Story of the Dak Bungalow Ralph Russell The Famous Ghalib: The Sound of my Moving Pen R.V. Smith Delhi: Unknown Tales of a City Salman Akthar The Book of Emotions Sharmishta Gooptu Bengali Cinema: An Other Nation Shrabani Basu Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan S. Hussain Zaidi Dongri to Dubai Sunil Raman & Rohit Aggarwal Delhi Durbar: 1911 The Complete Story Thomas Weber Going Native: Gandhi’s Relationship with Western Women Thomas Weber Gandhi at First Sight Vir Sanghvi Men of Steel: India’s Business Leaders in Candid Conversation
FORTHCOMING TITLES Shahrayar Khan Bhopal Connections: Vignettes of Royal Rule Aruna Roy The RTI Story: A People’s Movement for Transparency
 
RAJESH
PILOT
A Biography
Rama Pilot

 
ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2018
First published in 2017 by
The Lotus Collection
An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd
M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market
New Delhi 110 048
Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.rolibooks.com
Copyright © Text and Photographs, Rama Pilot, 2017
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, print reproduction, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Roli Books. Any unauthorized distribution of this e-book may be considered a direct infringement of copyright and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
eISBN: 978-81-9360-092-4
All rights reserved.
This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published.
 

 
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Childhood Days
2. New Turns and Twists
3. Joining the Air Force
4. Life in the Air Force
5. Fighting in the 1971 War
6. Beginning of a New Life
7. Back on Track
8. Goodbye to the Air Force
9. Entering Politics
10. Family Life
11. A Fatal Crash
12. An Assassination and Another Election
13. The Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Trust
14. A Mammoth Farmers’ Rally
15. Yet Another Tragedy
16. Ministerial Roles
17. Rajesh Pilot’s Mission Kashmir
18. Tenth June
19. Eleventh June
20. ‘Ram Ram Sa’
 
INTRODUCTION
Many years ago, a ten-year-old lived in a hovel in Lutyens’ Delhi. Whether it was the scorching summer or the biting cold of winter, he would sleep in the pen for his cattle, a herd of buffaloes. When it rained, there was slushy mud everywhere. He would start his day with cutting grass for the cattle. Then he would milk them and deliver the produce to the posh bungalows of that VIP area.
After returning to his hovel, he would bathe quickly and get ready to go to school. His clothes were so shabby that his teachers would reprimand him and his classmates would taunt and ridicule him.
How his childhood days passed in that crushing struggle, cannot be fathomed. But he had a dream, an aspiration, which he did not allow to die. In fact, that dream was not his, but his father’s. His only ambition was to fulfil it anyhow and at any cost. And to fulfil it, the boy faced all kinds of difficulties and adversities cheerfully and courageously. He was like a flame fighting for its existence in stormy weather, fighting with full vigour for its survival. His father’s dream was that he should become an officer in the armed forces one day – and it was his firm decision to achieve that goal for his father’s sake.
And finally that day did come, the day when he fulfilled his father’s dream. He was selected as a soldier in the Army. Then, later, he became an Air Force officer as a pilot, which is why he came to be known by his adopted surname – Pilot – which signified his identity when he joined politics. The nation now knows that great personality as Rajesh Pilot.
He was a brave pilot who fought in the war against Pakistan in 1971 and destroyed enemy positions. He then left the Air Force and joined politics. A committed social worker and concerned about the uplift and development of poor and downtrodden people, especially farmers and labourers, he devoted his political life to the people of this great country.
Who would have thought at the time that the boy who used to deliver milk to the posh Lutyens’ bungalows, would one day be a proud occupant of one of those bungalows. Also, it was beyond imagination to think that he would leave his permanent job as a pilot in the Indian Air Force and join politics. What was he thinking? Why did he abandon his dream job and join politics?
When he fought the elections, he won as many as six times and became a minister in the central government. As a minister, he formulated many policies with his own pen. He lived by the slogan of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ (Long live the soldier, long live the farmer), working with devotion and dedication. He had seen many ups and downs in his life, but never surrendered before any odds. A courageous person, he faced all obstacles with a smile – and always remained deeply rooted in his soil. It is the story of such a man, who had risen from his childhood poverty to achieve success in public life, which will encourage thousands of Indian youth.
It is essential for the young generation to know how an underprivileged child found his foothold in life and made a name for himself.
How did that child fulfil his dream?
Why did he take a decision to join politics so suddenly?
Why had he wanted to fight an election against the then prime minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh?
How did he put his life at grave risk while doing his bit to tackle terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir?
In the answer to every such question is some interesting incident. In the many ups and down of his life from his childhood to the Air Force and political days, every event, every incident brings out different facets of Rajesh Pilot’s personality, as the following pages will show.
 
1
CHILDHOOD DAYS
B aidapura is a village situated just 5 kilometres away from Ghaziabad in India’s most populated and politically dominating state, Uttar Pradesh. When Ghaziabad was not a district, Baidapura used to come under the jurisdiction of the district of Bulandshahr. Nowadays, it is in the district called Gautam Buddha Nagar, which is part of the National Capital Region.
Most of the inhabitants are small-time farmers. Only a few lucky villagers have managed to get government or private jobs and have moved to the towns and cities where they could earn more than was possible in the rural areas. It was not that they would leave the village without any regrets for it had its own natural beauty, with swathes of green fields and ancient trees, the raised hedges around its fields providing a distinct identity. The people they left behind were very simple, following a peaceful lifestyle despite the hardships they had to face.
The drawbacks of living in a village were many. In the earlier days, most of the inhabitants were poor and illiterate and had to survive on farming and husbandry. Today, however, people are not only juggling different jobs, but also running their own businesses. During the 1940s and ’50s, the economic condition of this village was very precarious and the living conditions abysmal. There were no concrete roads and no electricity. At night, the village would get engulfed in pitch-darkness, especially during the new moon phase, when the darkness would increase manifold.
But it was also true that in this rural area, the sky would look alluringly beautiful with the new moon and stars strung out like a necklace of millions of diamonds. In most of the northern part of India, the new moon night is still celebrated as a festival, when prayers are offered for departed souls. On this occasion, it has been a common practice since ages to prepare kheer and offer it to the gods. Modernity and rampant urbanization have not changed this tradition, which is still observed and celebrated with full vigour and devotion. It is also pertinent here to describe another important tradition during the new moon phase, which was that farmers would refrain from tilling their fields at the time. In the past, unlike today when tractors and new kinds of machines are used, only oxen would pull the ploughs for this task, so they would also get some well-deserved rest like their masters.
Diwali, India’s most popular festival, is also celebrated on this very night, with great fervour and gaiety. Every person, either rich or poor, farmer or moneylender, would cleanse and decorate his house and workplace, according to his own budget and economic state. At night, sparkling lights and candles would illumin