VC Shukla, a close associate of late Sanjay Gandhi, not only cut power supply to printing presses but also used to monitor almost each and every story printed during his stint as I&B minister during the Emergency
Veteran Congress leader Vidya Charan (VC) Shukla on Tuesday died of the injuries he had suffered in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh on 25th May. Shukla, who held several portfolios in the Union cabinet, was better known as the man who imposed press censorship during the Emergency (1975-77) with zeal.
Shukla sustained severe bullet injuries when nexalites attacked a Congress rally in Chhattisgarh. He was airlifted from Raipur and admitted in the Gurgaon hospital a day after the attack that eliminated almost all the top leaders from Chhattisgarh Congress.
Maoists had ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on 25th May, killing 27 people including PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh, senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and ex-MLA Uday Mudaliyar and injuring Shukla and 36 others.
As minister for information and broadcasting, Shukla not only cut power supply to printing presses but also used to monitor almost each and every story printed. During Emergency, he even reportedly, banned famous singer Kishore Kumar from All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, for refusing to sing at a Congress rally in Mumbai.
Shukla belonged to a powerful family of politicians. His father Pt Ravishankar Shukla was a lawyer, freedom fighter and also first chief minister of reorganised Madhya Pradesh. Shyama Charan, the brother of VC Shukla was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for three times.
VC, himself held several portfolios in the Union cabinet including communications, home, defence, finance, planning, information & broadcasting, civil supplies, external affairs, parliamentary affairs and water resources.
He won nine consecutive elections since his first election in 1957 from Mahasamund constituency as the youngest member of Parliament (MP) at that time.
When Indira Gandhi became prime minister in 1966, she chose him as a minister in her Cabinet. Shukla was also very close to Sanjay Gandhi. It was said, that following poor coverage of Indira Gandhi's rally at Boat Club on 20 June 1975, Sanjay Gandhi removed Inder Kumar Gujral and appointed Shukla as minister of I&B.
Shukla, due to his closeness with Sanjay Gandhi, took on the press and went on to become famous (or infamous) due to his zeal to gag media.
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