Keshab Chandra Gogoi

Keshab Chandra Gogoi (29 September 1926 – 5 August 1998) was an Indian statesman and lawyer who served as the 9th chief minister of Assam from January to March 1982. He was the member of Assam Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Dibrugarh from 1978 to 1996. Gogoi held various ministerial positions under numerous chief ministers between 1978 and 1991, most prominently serving as finance minister under three different governments.

Born in Sibsagar to an Ahom family, Gogoi studied at Banaras Hindu University; while a student there, he participated in the Quit India movement in 1942. He began his legal career in Sibsagar in 1949, before shifting his practice to Dibrugarh in 1953. He was elected a member of the Bar Council of Assam and Nagaland in 1971, and became a senior advocate of the Gauhati High Court in 1975. At the 1978 Assam Legislative Assembly election, Gogoi was elected the MLA for Dibrugarh for the Janata Party. He was appointed the finance minister under Golap Borbora in March 1978 before he resigned after a July 1979 reshuffle. He defected to the Assam Janata Dal in 1979 and was appointed finance minister under Jogendra Nath Hazarika. In 1980, Gogoi defected to the Indian National Congress (I) where he then returned as finance minister under Anwara Taimur until president's rule was imposed in June 1981. He was considered a potential candidate for Chief Minister in both 1979 and 1981.

After the expiration of president's rule in Assam, Gogoi emerged as the frontrunner for the Congress party leadership and he was subsequently invited to form a government by governor Prakash Mehrotra in January 1982. Under his administration, he undertook the implementation of the National Rural Employment Scheme, supported the 20-point programme launched by prime minister Indira Gandhi, and released Assamese police officials who had been arrested by the previous government under Taimur. His chief ministership came amid the political instability during the Assam movement. Although generally considered softer towards the movement, he threatened to ban the All Assam Students Union (AASU), and initiated a process to identify Muslims who might have crossed from Bangladesh to Assam between 1961 and 1971. His tenure was also marked by internal party conflicts which left him without stable legislative support. Facing an opposition motion of no confidence, Gogoi resigned in March, having served for two months.

After leaving office, Gogoi was reelected as an MLA in the 1983 election and served as a cabinet minister under Hiteswar Saikia until Congress lost the 1985 election. After the party returned to power in 1991, Gogoi again served as a minister under Saikia until he was dismissed from the cabinet amid political disagreements with Saikia. After his expulsion from Congress (I) in 1995, he was nominated as the All India Indira Congress (tiwari) candidate for Dibrugarh in the 1996 election but was defeated by the INC candidate. His eighteen-year-long political career ended in 1996, and he died at the age of 71 in 1998. Gogoi's eldest son, Anjan Gogoi, went on to serve as an Air Marshal in the Indian Air Force, and his second son, Ranjan Gogoi, became the 46th chief justice of India and a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Early life, education and career Gogoi was born on 29 September 1926 in the village Lanlak, in Sibsagar, Assam province. He was born into an Ahom family as the son of Bhogram Gogoi.

Gogoi attended Banaras Hindu University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He participated in the 1942 Quit India movement while a student of the university, and was subsequently "externed" from the university. Gogoi also studied at the Banaras Law College where he received a Bachelor of Laws (LLB). He was elected secretary and then president of the Banaras Law College union.

Gogoi began his legal practice in 1949 in Sibsagar, and then shifted his practice to the Dibrugarh district court in 1953. He was elected a Member of the Bar Council of Assam and Nagaland in 1971, and became a senior advocate of the Gauhati High Court in 1975.

Early political career (1978–1982)

Janata Party Gogoi was elected to Assam Legislative Assembly in the 1978 election as the Janata Party candidate in Dibrugarh. He received 22,003 votes, 57.84% of the total vote, and defeated his nearest opponent by 11,930 votes. He became the minister for finance, judicial, legislative, and law under Chief Minister Golap Borbora in his cabinet. On 9 April 1979, he formally inaugurated the Agricultural Development Branch of the State Bank of India in his role as finance minister. He also urged the central government to take control of the flood system in the state following the 1979 floods. As finance minister under Borbora, he was tasked with filling the estimated budget deficit, which he described as a "herculean task", in a state where additional resource mobilisation was described as limited. One of the policies to help reduce the deficit was the proposed increase in the exemption limit of the agricultural income-tax from to .

In July 1979, Borbora reshuffled his ministry; Gogoi was reappointed to the government. However, shortly after his reappointment, Gogoi and Jagnath Singha, resigned due to dissatisfaction with the portfolios allocation in the reshuffle. Gogoi resigned on 17 July and Singha the following day; Gogoi and other rebels staked their claim to form a ministry. They reportedly alleged that Borbora was "misusing administrative machinery and stalling developmental activities".

After leaving the Borbora cabinet, Gogoi defected to the Assam Janata Dal in 1979. By August 1979, he emerged as one of three potential candidates for Chief Minister along with Hiteswar Saikia, supported by Jogendra Nath Hazarika, and Tarini Mohan Barua. However, Hazarika became Chief Minister, and Gogoi subsequently returned as finance minister in Hazarika's cabinet. In December 1979, support for the Hazarika ministry declined; the Communist Party of India (CPI) had already been dissatisfied with Hazarika, and on 11 December the Congress (U) withdrew its support. Subsequently, eleven ministers and two parliamentary secretaries led by Gogoi resigned, and the Hazarika ministry collapsed. After the resignation of Hazarika, Gogoi was elected the leader of the Assam Janata Dal party.

Defection to Congress With the 1980 Indira Gandhi wave in the Assam assembly, Gogoi defected to the Indian National Congress (I) and became minister for finance, judicial, legislative, law, and parliamentary affairs in the cabinet under Anwara Taimur. He served until June 1981. As finance minister, India Today reported that he was left "gaping" after an appraisal of the state's finances as the tax realisation was less than half of what was expected, leaving him "hard-pressed" to clear the backlog of unspent funds. He presented his budget on 23 March 1981 for the 1981–82 assembly year; the budget was a deficit which was left uncovered, which Gogoi attributed to higher plan outlay for the year. He did not propose any further taxes in the budget. As law minister, Organiser reported that he was reluctant to appoint Abdul Muhib Mazumder as the advocate general of Assam, which Taimur was in favour of.

Amid the political instability after the Taimur government survived a motion of no confidence in April 1981, and with reported cabinet discontent over Taimur's leadership, Gogoi was widely speculated as a potential leadership candidate. On 15 April, India Today argued that he was not yet a "serious challenger" due to his recent defection from Janata party to Congress (I), which they suggested meant he had not built a "rapport" with partymen, but reported that Gogoi "may be a man to watch in the future".

Chief Ministership (1982) Appointment Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (pictured) had imposed President's rule in Assam in June 1981. President's rule had been imposed in Assam in June 1981 when the government of Anwara Taimur failed to get the Assam appropriation bill passed by the assembly. President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy issued a proclamation revoking president's rule imposed on Assam on 30 June 1981, and then extending for another term of six months. Immediately after the fall and resignation of the Taimur government, a group of parties entitled the "left democratic front" or Left Democratic Alliance (LDA), consisting of twelve parties including the Congress (U), Janata Party, and the Assam Janata Party, emerged. They expressed their interest in forming a government led by either former chief minister Sarat Chandra Sinha or former chief minister Golap Borbora. The governor of Assam, Prakash Mehrotra, however declined to allow the formation of a government by the left democratic front on the grounds that there was a lack of evidence of support amongst MLAs. Taimur was still leader of the Assam Congress legislature party, and claimed the support of fifty-one party members to form a government, but she was advised by central leaders of the party to wait. After this, two candidates for the chief ministership remained; Gogoi and Jogendra Nath Hazarika. On 8 December 1981, Hazarika, with four of his supporters, approached Congress (I) and offered to support it in a coalition government but the offer was rejected.

Gogoi was described as a "long-term aspirant" for the office of chief minister, having previously been considered and speculated as a candidate in 1979, and in 1981. Prakash Mehrotra (pictured) appointed Gogoi as Chief Minister. Taimur proposed Gogoi for the leadership, as did other potential leadership candidate Hiteswar Saikia. The Taimur camp had previously encouraged Saikia to contest Gogoi's claim, but an opinion poll before the final selection showed there were only eight backers of Saikia among the thirty-five Congress members assembled, while twenty-four supported Gogoi and three remained neutral. Just before his selection, four supporters of Taimur resigned from the party. Saikia dropped out of the race on health grounds.

In response to criticism of governor Mehrotra by the opposition over alleged partisanship in the appointment of Gogoi and bypassing of the appointment of an LDA government, Gogoi stated that "the governor has his own methods to assess the situation and I think he has been very fair." He was given six weeks by Mehrotra to convene the Assembly and prove he commanded a majority. He began allocating portfolios to his cabinet on 23 January. Gogoi allocated himself the ministries of home, administration reforms, public relations, khadi and village industries, rural development, public works, tourism and all other departments not allocated. They were included in Gogoi's initial cabinet list, but not allocated portfolios or sworn in until 30 January.

As chief minister, Gogoi emphasised the implementation of the National Rural Employment Scheme, and the 20-point programme launched by prime minister Indira Gandhi. His administration also undertook the release of senior ethnic Assamese police officials who had been arrested by the previous government under Anwara Taimur.

Gogoi's tenure came amidst Assam agitation, a popular uprising demanding the deportation of foreigners, led by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP). He was generally considered soft towards the movement; under his chief ministership, there was relatively less use of force in the administration of Assam during the agitation period. Despite this, the installation of another Congress government was resented by the AASU and opposition parties, and a bandh call on 18 January 1982 caused a large response in the Brahmaputra valley. Shortly afterwards, on 26 January, a call was given to observe a "people's curfew" on Republic Day. As part of the "curfew", Republic Day functions were boycotted and people remained in their homes. Gogoi subsequently accused both the AASU and the AAGSP of "secessionist acts", and threatened to ban both organisations. He told a news conference in January that demonstrators had pulled down the Indian national flag at eighteen different locations and harassed numerous people as part of the "curfew" protest. The AASU denied Gogoi's "secessionist" label against them.

Instability and resignation Anwara Taimur (pictured) began to oppose Gogoi's leadership. After Gogoi was appointed chief minister, he consistently faced instability in his government, especially due to internal conflicts within the party. Taimur was described as "virtually leading a revolt against him"; in order to keep up with her, Gogoi turned to opposition MLAs for support. The foreigners issue also began to cause dissatisfaction in Gogoi's leadership within his party. He initiated a process to identify muslims who might have crossed from Bangladesh into Assam between 1961 and 1971. This created dissent amongst muslims in the party, including Golam Osmani and Afzalur Rahman, who left the party, reducing the strength of Congress (I) in the assembly.

Mehrotra eventually reversed his decision on making a government have to face the assembly quickly to prove its majority, but the budget session was due. In the time leading up to the first assembly meeting, Gogoi reportedly found it "tough", and struggled in his attempts to keep maintaining the support of opposition MLAs. On the day before the assembly session on 14 March 1982, which was meeting after a year, there were disagreements over the level of support in the legislature between Congress (I) and the LDA. Gogoi claimed the support of 62 MLAs, while the LDA claimed the support of 63.left Gogoi wanted to prevent opposition leader Sarat Chandra Sinha (pictured) from forming a government. Subsequently, the LDA moved a motion of no confidence against 65-day-old Gogoi ministry on 17 March. The censure motion was moved against Gogoi jointly by opposition leader Sarat Chandra Sinha, Golap Borbora, Hemen Das, Promode Gogoi, Zainal Abedin, Premadhar Bora and Ramesh Mohan Kouli. The speaker, Sheikh Chand Mohammad, admitted the motion and fixed the discussion for 18 March. After realising he failed to secure the required numbers to survive the motion, Gogoi tendered in his resignation to the governor, and the speaker then adjourned the house sine die.

A new government may have been formed by the LDA after the resignation of Gogoi, but he advised the governor to dissolve the assembly. When asked about this recommendation, he stated "I had no other alternative. If I did not make such a recommendation then the governor would have had no other alternative but to allow the opposition to form a ministry." He also expressed sadness over the decision, saying that he felt sorry for the members of his party who had "suddenly become ordinary people".

Assessment Gogoi himself attributed the downfall of his ministry to Taimur. After the ministry collapsed, Gogoi stated "the ministry would not have toppled if Taimur had not worked against me. Just when five Janata MLAs were about to support me, Taimur stepped up her fight against me and they became shy as they could not support somebody who faced so much opposition within his own party."

Bhawani Singh assessed in 1984 that Gogoi's minority ministry (and also Taimur's) "needed external props to survive" which "sharpened the strife and tension" in the state, but that Gogoi (differing to Taimur) "made good his exit" from the chief ministership. Babulal Fadia asserted that Gogoi may have had a longer tenure as chief minister had the budget session not been due.

Post-Chief Ministership (1982–1996)

In the 1983 Assam Legislative Assembly election, he was reelected, polling 4,905 votes as the Congress candidate in Dibrugarh. and later the Public Works Department (PWD) minister in the Hiteswar Saikia cabinet from 1983 to 1985. As PWD minister, he led the dissidents in the Saikia cabinet over the delay in the setting up of tribunals for illegal immigrants who had entered Assam, which Gogoi reportedly made political "capital" from.

In the 1985 Assam Legislative Assembly election, Gogoi won 24,100 votes, 44.87% of the total vote and he was reelected in Dibrugarh, defeating his nearest opponent by 4,055 votes. Saikia's actions drew criticism from Gogoi and caused conflict between the two, which led to Gogoi publicly criticising Saikia's handling of the hostage crisis on 2 October 1991. The issue caused Gogoi to grow increasingly frustrated with Saikia's leadership. He went on to heavily criticise Saikia, stating that Saikia had a "dictatorial style of functioning" and "short-sighted policies" to tackle ULFA. Gogoi further alleged that all cabinet ministers, except for a few favoured by the chief minister, were being "deliberately sidelined" by Saikia and that he had "virtually usurped all powers".

On 18 October 1991, Gogoi moved from his position as planning and development minister, and was instead given charge of Public Enterprises. On 27 November, Saikia dismissed Gogoi from the cabinet for "anti-party activities".

Gogoi was expelled from the Indian National Congress (INC) on 3 March 1995 for alleged anti-party activities for a period of 6 years. He remained MLA for Dibrugarh until 1996, where he sought reelection as the All India Indira Congress (tiwari) candidate but finished fourth in the election, losing his seat to INC candidate Kalyan Kumar Gogoi. and they had five children: Anjan Gogoi, Ranjan Gogoi, Nirjan Gogoi, Indira Gogoi and Nandita Hazarika. Shanti Gogoi was the daughter of Jogesh Chandra Borgohain and Padma Kumari Gohain, both of whom were politicians. Padma Kumari Gohain was the member of the Assam Legislative Assembly for Moran and was a minister in the Bimala Prasad Chaliha and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury cabinets. His youngest son, Nirjan, became a consultant urologist in the United Kingdom, and his two daughters, Indira and Nandita, served as members of the Assam civil service.

During the childhood of his two elder sons, both Anjan and Ranjan wished to attend the Sainik School in Goalpara, but Keshab Gogoi said that only one could go. As both brothers wanted to go, Keshab Gogoi told them to decide via a coin toss. Anjan won the coin toss, and went to the Sainik School in 1964, which culminated in his IAF career. Ranjan attended Don Bosco school in Dibrugarh and later studied at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, before later pursuing a legal career. Over four decades later, Ranjan became the CJI in October 2018, the first holder of the office from Northeast India.

Death Keshab Chandra Gogoi died on 5 August 1998 in Dibrugarh, at the age of 71. He was survived by his wife, children and grandchildren. His widow, Shanti Gogoi, survived him by over two decades, before dying in April 2021.