Lalit Narayan Mishra (2 February 1923 – 3 January 1975) was an Indian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who served as

Minister of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructur ...

in the government of India from 1973 to 1975. His political career started when he was made parliamentary secretary to the First

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

at the insistence of Dr.

Sri Krishna Sinha Shri Krishna Singh (Sinha) (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from t ...

, the first Chief Minister of

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. In 1975, he died in a bomb blast at

Samastipur Samastipur is a City and Municipal Corporation in Bihar, India. It is the headquarter of Samastipur district and comes under Darbhanga division. The Burhi Gandak River flows through the city. It is one of the five railway divisions of ECR, H ...

railway station. The court case against the perpetrators was delayed for years and was finally completed in December 2014.

Early life

Lalit Narayan Mishra was born on

Basant Panchmi Vasant Panchami , also rendered Vasanta Panchami and Saraswati Puja in honour of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, is a festival that marks the preparation for the arrival of spring. The festival is celebrated in Indian religions in different ways ...

in 1923 at Basanpatti in

Supaul District Supaul district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar, India. The town Supaul is the district's administrative headquarters. The district, which was split from the former Saharsa district on 14 March 1991, occupies . Social Group Su ...

of in a Maithil Brahmin family. He gained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern e ...

in 1948. He held nationalists

and

Anugrah Narayan Sinha Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as ''Honorary titles of Indian leaders, Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist politician, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, wh ...

in high esteem.

Political career

Mishra joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

party and was a member of the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

and

5th Lok Sabha The 5th Lok Sabha (15 March 1971 — 18 January 1977) was elected during February–March 1971.The term of the House was extended two times by one year at a time. However, the House was dissolved after having been in existence for a period of ...

. He was a member of the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

in 1964 to 1966 then in 1966 to 1972. He was Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Labour and Employment (1957–60), Deputy Minister for

Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a Ministry (government department), government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law e ...

(1964–66), Deputy

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

(1966–67), Minister of State for Defence Production (1967–70). From 1970 till 4 February 1973 he was Minister of Foreign Trade. On 5 February 1973 he was made Cabinet

by then

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

. As a Minister of Foreign Trade, he was one of the first to recognize the potential of future

Dr Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

and appointed him as his adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Their first meeting happened coincidentally on an India-US-Chile flight. Mr. Mishra the minister for commerce (then called minister for foreign trade) was on his way to

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, to attend a meeting of

UNCTAD UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the United Nations General Assembl ...

Assassination

As Minister of Railways, he visited

on 2 January 1975 to declare the Samastipur-

Darbhanga Darbhanga is the fifth largest city and municipal corporation in the state of Bihar in India, and is considered an important city in North Bihar. It serves as the headquarters of the Darbhanga district and the Darbhanga division. Darbhanga ...

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

railway line open. A bomb explosion on the day seriously injured him. He was taken from Samastipur to the railway hospital at

Danapur Danapur Nizamat or Danapur is an Indian satellite town and one of six subdivisions (tehsil) in the Patna district of Bihar state.Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

blamed "foreign elements" for the murder, probably referring to the CIA. His brother

Jagannath Mishra Jagannath Mishra (24 June 1937 – 19 August 2019) was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Bihar and as Union Council of Ministers, Minister in the Union Cabinet. He was also Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha between 1988 - 1990 ...

denied the claim that LN Mishra and

had received bribes from the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

as alleged in the

Mitrokhin Archives The Mitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secret KGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin which he shared with British intelligence in the early 1990s. Mitr ...

; the Congress Party describes the book as "pure

sensationalism In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emoti ...

and vague". On 26 July 2012, the Supreme Court stated that it will go into the causes of delay as even after 33 years, the trial was yet to conclude in the session court. As of July 2013, the 27-year-old man accused of the murder was 65 years old. Of the 39 witnesses he cited to prove his innocence, 31 have died. More than 20 different judges have heard his case over the years, supposedly on a day-by-day basis. After 39 years of trial, on 8 December 2014 four men accused of Mishra's murder were found guilty by a Delhi court. A fifth accused in the case had died. Three

Ananda Marga Ānanda Mārga (, Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages, also spelled Anand Marg and Ananda Marg), or officially Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha (organization for the propagation of the path of bliss), is a world-wide socio-spiritual orga ...

followers, Santoshanand, Sudevanand and Gopalji, along with advocate Ranjan Dwivedi, were held guilty of murdering Mishra and two others. They were sentenced to life imprisonment by district judge and were fined amounts ranging from Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000. The court noted that

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (21 May 1921 – 21 October 1990), also known by his spiritual name Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (Ánanda Múrti meaning "Bliss Embodiment"), and known as Bábá ("Father") to his disciples, was a spiritual guru, philos ...

, the religious leader of Ananda Marga, was jailed following his accusations in a murder case so his followers murdered Mishra to build pressure on Indira Gandhi government to release Sarkar. Sarkar was later acquitted. The court also noted that the six Ananda Marga followers met at a village in

Bhagalpur district Bhagalpur district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India. It is one of the oldest districts of Bihar. Bhagalpur city is the administrative headquarters of the district. Geography Bhagalpur district occupies an area of . Bha ...

, Bihar and planned the conspiracy in 1973. Appeal was filed by the convicted accused in Delhi High Court in 2015 wherein bail was granted and appeal was admitted. The Appeal filed by the convicted accused is now being heard at final hearing stage in Delhi High Court and in a recent development an application has also been filed in the appeal in High Court in lieu of Supreme Court order dated 13.10.2023 in SLP(Crl.) No. 13467/2023, Vaibhav Mishra v. CBI & Ors. which will be heard along with the main appeal.

Legacy

A university, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, MBA institutes,

Lalit Narayan Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change Lalit may refer to: * Lalit party, a left political party in Mauritius * Lalit (raga), a raga in Indian classical music * Lalit Suri, an Indian politician * Lalit Surajmal Kanodia, an Indian business entrepreneur See also * Jatin–Lalit, a Bolly ...

, Patna (LNMI, Patna), L N Mishra Institute of Business Management, Muzaffarpur and a railway hospital in Gorakhpur, UP are named after him. The Government of India issued a postage stamp in his memory.

References

External links

*
University

College of Business
* http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/deptts/mpp/Instructions%20for%20medical.pdf
Mnega first time in Delhi fine day

LNMU Part 3 Admit Card 2019 Date
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mishra, Lalit Narayan 1923 births 1975 in India 1975 murders in India India MPs 1952–1957 India MPs 1957–1962 India MPs 1971–1977 Commerce and industry ministers of India Crime in Bihar Deaths by explosive device Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar Lok Sabha members from Bihar People from Saharsa district People murdered in Bihar Railway ministers of India Rajya Sabha members from Bihar Asian politicians assassinated in the 1970s Indian politicians assassinated in the 20th century Politicians assassinated in 1975