page_title: Mani Ram Bagri
section_title: Ideology and methods
hierarchical_section_title: Mani Ram Bagri / Political career / Ideology and methods
caption_attribution_description: English: Ch. Mani Ram Bagri with friends
context_page_description: Ch. Mani Ram Bagri was an Indian parliamentarian and political activist. He served three terms in the Indian Parliament, first from 1962 to 1967, and then again from 1977 to 1984. He belonged to the league of parliamentary opposition socialists like Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan.
  Known widely throughout North India during his tenure as the "de facto" Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Bagri was widely considered to be one of the most prolific Socialist leaders of his time. He was party to the nation's international visits to the USSR, including the summit that led to the Tashkent Declaration, as well as the Warsaw Pact socialist republics in the 1960s. He is also notable for being the first speaker to address the International Parliamentary Conference in Hindi, his mother tongue.
context_section_description: Having risen from a very poor family, Bagri spent most of his life fighting for the underprivileged sections of the Indian society. His methods of doing so are generally described as Gandhian. He had joined politics at a young age and devoted his entire life to the poor's rights. He was a hardcore socialist and demanded the word of other Non-Congress parties in the government and this attitude earned him the honour of being the first Leader Of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.  Bagri is widely regarded across party lines as having been a politician with impeccable integrity and ethics. He was renowned for living a frugal lifestyle and used to donate a large amount of his salary to the poor around Hissar, Delhi, amongst other such towns. Bagri was held in utmost esteem by successive Prime Ministers of India including Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. Despite representing a brand of socialist ideology often opposed to Congress' policies, Bagri shared a deep personal bond with Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. Bagri played a pivotal role in shaping the nascent democracy in India, and gave a voice to millions of villagers, the poor and the downtrodden and represented their aspirations. He led many movements in North India championing the cause of the poor and the oppressed and is considered a major force in giving these weaker sections of society self-belief.
  Mr Bagri was an excellent communicator and a brilliant orator. One of Mr. Bagri's famous speeches in Parliament related to nationalization of Birla House which was owned by the Birla family. As the government was not very keen on this, Mr. Bagri being his usual fiery self thundered:
  "My question is that the way Guru Tegh Bahadur’s place of martyrdom was commemorated in a foreign land, the way Ram, Krishna and other great people’s places of martyrdom was commemorated, then can the Government cite a reason that in their own country the site of martyrdom of the Father of the Nation cannot be commemorated? Actually the Government is sold out to the Birlas!".
  — Sh. Mani Ram Bagri
  Despite his rivalry between the Congress Leaders, he maintained a cordial relationship with prominent leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
  He officially retired from politics in the late 1980s as the Indira Gandhi government slowly dissolved. He outlived most of his league-in-arms and spent the rest of his life at his residence in Hissar, and the chowk in which it is located is, till date, known in his honour as Bagri Chowk. Bagri, ailing for the past few years, died in Hissar on 31 January 2012 at the age of 92 years.
caption: Ch. Mani Ram Bagri with friends
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