Acharya Kripalani:
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Acharya Kripalani on his Jayanti.
- Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani (1888 – 1982), popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, was an independence activist, Indian politician and an Educationist.
- Kripalani was also well-known for his work in the field of education. From 1912 to 1927, he taught at various places before becoming wholly involved in freedom movement.
- He earned the moniker ‘Acharya’ around 1922 when he was teaching at the Gujarat Vidyapith, founded by the Mahatma a couple of years before.
- He was involved in the organization of Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience movements and Quit India Movement.
- He was the President of Indian National Congress (INC) at the time of independence.
- He served in the Interim government of India (1946–1947) and the Constituent Assembly of India.
- Post-independence, he left the Congress and became one of the founders of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP).
- This party subsequently merged with the Socialist Party of India to form the Praja Socialist Party (PSP).
- He remained in opposition for the rest of his life and was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1952, 1957, 1963 and 1967 as a member of Praja Socialist Party.
- Kripalani moved the first-ever No confidence motion in Lok Sabha in 1963, immediately after the India-China War.
- He remained a critic of Nehru’s policies and Indira Gandhi’s authoritarian rule. He was arrested during Emergency.
- He along with Vinoba Bhave, was involved in in preservation and conservation activities throughout the 1970s.
- He was married to Sucheta Kripalani, India’s first woman Chief Minister, who led Uttar Pradesh from 1963 to 1967. She remained in Congress after Independence.
- His autobiography ‘My Times’ was released 22 years after his death in 2004.
