Manohar Parrikar

Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar (13 December 1955 – 17 March 2019) was an Indian politician and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who served as Chief Minister of Goa from 14 March 2017 until his death.

He completed his primary education in Marathi and went on to graduate in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay), in 1978.

As a member of the BJP, Parrikar was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Goa in 1994.

He was leader of the opposition from June to November 1999.

Previously, he was Chief Minister of Goa from 2000 to 2005 and from 2012 to 2014 and from 2017 to 2019.

He successfully contested the election to become Chief Minister of Goa for the first time on 24 October 2000, but his tenure lasted only until 27 February 2002.

He was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Bombay in 2001.

Parrikar joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at a young age and became a mukhya shikshak (chief instructor) in the final years of his schooling.

After graduating from IIT, he resumed RSS work in Mapusa while maintaining a private business, and became a sanghchalak (local director) at the age of 26.

He was active in the RSS's North Goa unit, becoming a key organiser of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

He was seconded by RSS to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the objective of fighting the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.

He is sometimes described as having been a pracharak of the RSS.

In 2001, the Parrikar government had turned over fifty-one government primary schools in rural areas to Vidya Bharati, the educational wing of the Hindu nationalist group Sangh Parivar, inviting criticism from certain educationists.

In 2001, the Parrikar government turned over fifty-one government primary schools in rural areas to Vidya Bharati, the educational wing of the Sangh Parivar, inviting criticism from educationists.

He also drew criticism for approving a junket costing at least inr 8900000 for six government MLAs from the ruling party, including three ministers, to attend the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The Indian National Congress termed the trip "wasteful expenditure" and criticized the lack of other government officials or football experts in the delegation.

Parrikar often made remarks of controversial nature.

On 5 June 2002, he was re-elected and served another term as Chief Minister.

On 29 January 2005, his government was reduced to a minority in the Assembly after four BJP MLAs resigned from the House.

Pratapsing Rane of the Indian National Congress would subsequently replace Parrikar as Chief Minister.

In 2007, the Parrikar led BJP was defeated in the Goa state elections by the Congress led by Digambar Kamat.

Parrikar completed his 10th Standard Board Examination at G.S. Amonkar Vidya Mandir, Mapusa which was previously known as New Goa High school.

BJP and their party-allies won twenty-four seats against the Congress' nine in the Goa Assembly Elections held in March 2012.

Parrikar proposed the name of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate before 2013 BJP parliamentary elections convention in Goa.

He also served as the Minister of Defence from October 2014 to March 2017.

He served in the National Democratic Alliance government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Defence Minister of India from 2014 to 2017.

He was a former member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

He was the first IIT alumnus to serve as MLA of an Indian state, the first IITian to become the Chief Minister of a state in India, the first Goan to become a cabinet-rank minister at the Centre, and also the first Chief Minister of a state to continue in office for over a year despite being diagnosed with terminal-stage cancer.

Manohar Parrikar was born to a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin GSB family (Bamon) in Mapusa, Goa.

He studied at Loyola High School, Margao.

In 2014, Parrikar drew criticism for approving a junket costing at least inr 8900000 for six MLAs from the ruling party, including three ministers, to attend the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The Indian National Congress termed the trip "wasteful expenditure" and criticized the lack of other government officials or soccer experts in the delegation.

In the 2014 general elections, BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa.

Parrikar was reluctant to leave Goa and move to Delhi in November 2014, by his own admission but was persuaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join central government.

Parrikar was preceded by Laxmikant Parsekar as Goa's CM. Parrikar had represented the Panaji constituency in the Goa Legislative Assembly when he was a player in the state politics.

In November 2014, Parrikar was chosen as the Minister of Defence replacing Arun Jaitley, who, till then, held additional charge of the Ministry.

His entry into the parliament was facilitated by choosing him as the party's candidate for the elected Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.

On 14 March 2017, Parrikar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Goa.

Goa Forward Party led by Vijai Sardesai, one of the parties who allied with BJP in Goa after election results were announced, had said that it would extend support to the BJP only if Parrikar was brought back to the state as Chief Minister.

In January 2020, he was posthumously awarded Padma Bhushan.