Terming senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Brahmadutt Sharma’s demise is a loss to the State and the party, chief minister Harish Rawat’s media in-charge Surendra Kumar Agarwal said, adding that he had the chance of working with Sharma, his father Devidutt and his son Navprabhat.
He recollected that Sharma was earlier the municipal council chairman of Chauhadpur (now Vikasnagar). He was then elected a member of the legislative council in undivided Uttar Pradesh from the urban local bodies. In the 1970s, he was chosen the leader of the Opposition in the UP legislative council and became a member of the Congress under the leadership of Indira Gandhi.
“He had the opportunity of working with MN Roy, the founder of the communist party in India, Chowdhary Charan Singh, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. In 1977, he wrote the book ‘Five Headed Monster’ in which he termed the Janata Party a five headed monster and had forecast that the Janata Party would break down due to ideological differences. Impressed by his book, Indira Gandhi made him the leader of opposition in the UP legislative council.
In this capacity he made a place for himself in the State politics. During the 1980s, he played a role in facilitating the return of the Congress to power in the Centre and Uttar Pradesh. He was elected twice consecutively as an MlA from the Mussoorie constituency and became the Finance, Planning and Cooperatives minister in UP. He handled important portfolios as a member of cabinets of Veer Bahadur Singh and ND Tiwari. He was elected to the Parliament from Tehri constituency in 1984 and re-elected from this constituency in 1989 defeating prominent Statehood activist Indramani Badoni and Kamala Ram Nautiyal of the communist party. In 1984, in the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet, he was made the minister of Finance and Petroleum. In his capacity as the Petroleum minister, he was responsible for introducing subsidy on lPG cylinders in mountainous regions,” said Agarwal.
He recollected that he had cordial relations with even his strong opponents. According to Agarwal, “Freedom fighter Shanti Swaroop Sharma’s tea shop in Paltan Bazaar was a favourite haunt of intellectuals, social workers and politicians. Sharma used to visit this place and participate in debates. When he was contesting the Assembly poll from Mussoorie in 1980, he and rival candidate Kushalpal Singh often used to go for campaigning in the same car, address gatherings criticising each other and then at times return to Dehradun in the same car.”