Rabi Ray

Rabi Ray
ରବି ରାୟ
Portrait of Rabi Ray
9th Speaker of the Lok Sabha
In office 19 December 1989 – 9 July 1991
Prime Minister	Vishwanath Pratap Singh Chandra Sekhar
Deputy	Shivraj Patil
Preceded by	Balram Jakhar
Succeeded by	Shivraj Patil
Minister of Health and Family Welfare
In office 25 January 1979 – 14 January 1980
Prime Minister	Morarji Desai
Preceded by	Raj Narain
Succeeded by	Mohsina Kidwai
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 1989–1996
Preceded by	Sarat Kumar Deb
Succeeded by	Srikant Kumar Jena
Constituency	Kendrapara, Odisha
In office 1967–1971
Preceded by	Bibudhendra Mishra
Succeeded by	Banamali Patnaik
Constituency	Puri, Odisha
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office 3 April 1974 – 2 April 1980
Constituency	Odisha
Personal details
Born	(1926-11-26)26 November 1926 Bhanagarh, Puri district, Odisha, British India
Died	6 March 2017(2017-03-06) (aged 90) Cuttack, Odisha, India
Political party	Janata Dal
Other political affiliations	Janata Party (Secular), Janata Party, Samyukta Socialist Party, Socialist Party
As of 11 July, 2009 Source: [1]

Rabi Ray (26 November 1926 – 6 March 2017) was an Indian socialist politician, a Gandhian, a speaker of the Lok Sabha and a former Union minister. He hailed from Odisha. He joined the Socialist Party in 1948, and later became member of the Samyukta Socialist Party, the Janata Party and the Janata Dal.^[1][2]

Early life[]

Ray was born on 26 November 1926 at Bhanaragarh village in the Puri district of Orissa, He earned his B.A. Honours in History from the Ravenshaw College in Cuttack and later studied law at the Madhusudan Law College in Cuttack.^[1] He was married to Dr. Saraswati Swain, a medical doctor, who later became a professor at SCB Medical College, Cuttack. Being a socialist and forward looking, Ray never expected his wife to change her surname after marriage. She stood beside him as a source of inspiration in politic career.

Political career[]

Before joining active politics Rabi Ray was a freedom fighter. In early 1947, when he was studying history in Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, he was arrested by the British Army in connection with the unfurling of the tricolor Indian flag in Ravenshaw College. At the end of the day, the British Government had to give in to students' demands for the unfurling the tricolor Indian flag in educational institutions, though the country was still under foreign rule.

An ardent believer in socialism from his college days, Rabi Ray joined the Socialist Party as its member in 1948. Due to his innate qualities of leadership and his deep commitment to the socialist cause, he always remained at the forefront of the Socialist movement. During 1953–54, he held the post of the Joint Secretary, All India Samajwadi Yuvak Sabha. In 1956, under the leadership of Ram Manohar Lohia, he founded the Socialist Party in Orissa.^[3] He was a member of the National Executive of the Socialist Party during that period. Later, in 1960, he became the General Secretary of the party for about a year.

In 1967, he was elected to the 4th Lok Sabha from Puri constituency in Orissa. In the 4th Lok Sabha, he was the leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP). In 1974, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Orissa and he completed his term in Rajya Sabha in 1980. He was the Union minister of Health and Family Welfare in the Morarji Desai Ministry from January 1979 to January 1980.^[1]

In 1989, he was re-elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from the Kendrapara constituency in Orissa as a Janata Dal candidate. On 19 December 1989, he was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the 9th Lok Sabha. In 1991, he was re-elected to the 10th Lok Sabha from the same constituency.^[1] Rabi Ray, who was empowered with an inherent simplicity and integrity, added to the prestige and dignity of the office of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha through his unbiased approach.

Later years and social work[]

Since 1997, he was associated with a non-political organisation, Lok Shakti Abhiyaan, and spearheaded a people's movement against corruption in high places, excessive centralisation and a decadent consumerist culture. He toured different parts of the country in furtherance of ensuring probity and transparency in all spheres of public life. He was a member of the Citizens Initiative for Peace, a civil society group, and sought to find a peaceful resolution to the problem of Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in India.^[4][5] He regularly contributed articles on contemporary political and social issues to various leading journals in Oriya, Hindi and English.

Awards[]

• Light Of Truth, 2002 (Rabi Ray, received the award on behalf of the people of India during the closing ceremony of the Tibetan Festival of Compassion on 18 December 2002.)
• Shanti Doot International Award - the honour is conferred by the World Peace Movement Trust India.
• Kalinga Ratna, 2008

References[]

External links[]

• Rabi Ray at The Office of Speaker Lok Sabha
• Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
• Biography of Shri Rabi Ray at Winentrance.com