Jagjivan Ram

Jagjivan Ram
Ram on a 1991 stamp of India
4th Deputy Prime Minister of India
In office 24 January 1979 – 28 July 1979 Serving with Charan Singh
Prime Minister	Morarji Desai
Preceded by	Morarji Desai
Succeeded by	Yashwantrao Chavan
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha
In office 29 July 1979 – 22 August 1979
Preceded by	Yashwantrao Chavan
Succeeded by	Vacant
Minister of Defence
In office 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979
Prime Minister	Morarji Desai
Preceded by	Bansi Lal
Succeeded by	Chidambaram Subramaniam
In office 27 June 1970 – 10 October 1974
Prime Minister	Indira Gandhi
Preceded by	Sardar Swaran Singh
Succeeded by	Sardar Swaran Singh
Member of Constituent Assembly of India
In office 9 December 1946 – 24 January 1950
Personal details
Born	(1908-04-05)5 April 1908 Arrah, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Bihar, India)
Died	6 July 1986(1986-07-06) (aged 78) New Delhi, NCT of Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress-Jagjivan (1981–1986)
Other political affiliations	Indian National Congress (Before 1977) Congress for Democracy (1977) Janata Party (1977–1981)
Spouse	Indrani Devi ​ ​ (m. 1935; died 1986)​
Children	Suresh Kumar Meira Kumar
Alma mater	Banaras Hindu University University of Calcutta

Jagjivan Ram (5 April 1908 – 6 July 1986),^[1] known popularly as Babuji, was an Indian independence activist and politician from Bihar. He was instrumental in the foundation of the All India Depressed Classes League, an organisation dedicated to attaining equality for untouchables, in 1935 and was elected to Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1937, after which he organised the rural labour movement.

In 1946, he became the youngest minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's interim government, the first cabinet of India as a Labour Minister and also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, where he ensured that social justice was enshrined in the Constitution. He went on to serve as a minister with various portfolios for the next 30 years as a member of the Indian National Congress (INC). Most importantly, he was the Defence Minister of India during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. His contribution to the Green Revolution in India and modernising Indian agriculture, during his two tenures as Union Agriculture Minister are still remembered, especially during the 1974 drought when he was asked to hold the additional portfolio to tide over the food crisis.^[2][3]

Though he supported Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency (1975–77), he left Congress in 1977 and joined the Janata Party alliance, along with his Congress for Democracy. He later served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India (1977–79); then in 1981, he formed Congress (J). At his death, he was the last surviving minister of the Interim Government and the last surviving original member of the first cabinet of independent India. Including his service during the Interim Government, his total tenure of over 30 years in various ministries remains the longest of any Indian federal minister.