Devi Lal

Devi Lal (born Devi Dayal; 25 September 1914 – 6 April 2001), also known as Chaudhary Devi Lal, was an Indian statesman and politician who served as 6th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and from 1990 to 1991.

Devi Lal was born on 25 September 1914 in Teja Khera village of Sirsa district in present-day Haryana.

His mother's name was Shugna Devi and father's name was Lekh Ram Sihag.

Lekh Ram was a Jat of Chautala village and he owned 2750 bighas of land.

He received education up to middle-school.

His son Om Prakash Chautala has also served as Haryana's chief minister four times.

Lal's ancestral roots lie in Bikaner, Rajasthan, from where his great-grandfather Tejaram had migrated.

His father Lekhram relocated to Chautala village in 1919 when Lal was five years old.

In 1928 at the age of 16 Lal participated in demonstration by Lala Lajpat Rai.

He was a student of "Dev Samaj Public High School Moga" in Moga during his 10th class, at that time was arrested at Congress office in 1930, he quit studies and joined freedom movement.

He also took wrestling lesson at an Akhara in Badal village of Punjab.

For this, he was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment and sent to Hissar jail on 8 October 1930.

He took part in the movement of 1932 and was kept in Sadar Delhi Thana.

His elder brother Sahib Ram Sihag was the first politician from the family who became Congress MLA from Hisar in 1938 and 1947.

Lal had four sons, Partap Singh, Om Prakash Chautala, Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Chander.

All joined politics except Jagdish who died at a young age.

In 1938 he was selected delegate of All-India Congress Committee.

In March 1938 his elder brother was elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly in a by-election on the Congress party ticket.

In January 1940, Sahib Ram courted arrest as a satyagrahi in the presence of Lal and over ten thousand people.

He was fined Rs 100 and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.

Lal was arrested on 5 October 1942 and kept in jail for two years for taking part in the 1942 Quit India movement.

He was released from prison in October 1943 and he negotiated parole for his elder brother.

In August 1944, Chhotu Ram, the then Revenue Minister, visited Chautala village.

He, along with Lajpat Rai Alakhpura, made efforts to woo both Sahib Ram and Lal to desert Congress and join the Unionist Party.

But both workers, being dedicated freedom fighters, refused to leave the Congress Party.

After independence, Lal emerged as a popular farmer leader in the 1950s and started a farmers' movement, for which he was arrested along with his 500 workers.

After some time, then chief minister, Gopi Chand Bhargava, made an agreement and the Muzzara Act was amended.

He was first elected MLA in 1952.

Lal comes from a prolific political dynasty of Haryana.

He was elected a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1952 and President of the Punjab Congress in 1956.

In 1958, he was elected from Sirsa.

He played an active and decisive role in the formation of Haryana as a separate state.

His eldest son, Partap Singh, was an MLA from Indian National Lok Dal in the 1960s.

Lal was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was involved in the struggle for India's independence from the British Raj.He left his studies unfinished to take part in the freedom movement.

In 1971 he left Congress.

In 1972 vidhan sabha elections, he contested unsuccessfully against the two Congress heavyweights, Bansi Lal in Tosham constituency and Bhajan Lal in Adampur seat.

In 1974 he successfully contested in the Rori constituency.

Lal emerged as farmer leader from the state of Haryana, and served as the Chief Minister of Haryana from 1977 to 1979 and then from 1987 to 1989.

He was the founder of Indian National Lok Dal.

He was popularly known as Tau, meaning uncle.