Vidya Charan Shukla

Vidya Charan Shukla Biography

Vidya Charan Shukla, shortly called V. C. Shukla was a famous politician belonging to Indian National Congress. He was a close associate of Indira Gandhi and had spent more than 60 active years in Indian politics. His name has been associated with the controversial political satire, Kissa Kursi Ka, produced and directed by former Congress leader, Amrit Nahata.

The movie was banned by the Indian Government during the Emergency period and all prints were confiscated. It was a humorous political satire and though Amrit declared that all the characters were purely fictional and Emergency period had already started. As a result, all the prints of the movie which were submitted to censor board were picked up, later brought to Maruti factory in Gurgaon, where they were burned. Its enquiry further resulted in findings that Sanjay Gandhi along with V. C. Shukla was guilty of burning the negative of the movie. Both Sanjay Gandhi and Shukla were sentenced to two year jail term imprisonment and Gandhi was denied bail. V. C. Shukla was serving as Information and Broadcasting minister then.

Vidya Charan Shukla was born at Raipur, now a part of Chhattisgarh. He was born to Pt. Ravishankar Shukla, an eminent congress leader and freedom fighter who served as the first Chief Minister of reorganised Madhya Pradesh. Shyama Charan Shukla, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh is his elder brother. Shukla graduated from Morris College, Nagpur in 1951 and very soon started Allwyn Cooper Private Ltd. In the1957 general elections he was made Lok Sabha candidate from Mahasamund constituency by Congress. He won with a good majority and became one of the youngest parliamentarians then.  

He was Minister of State under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from 1967 to 1977. He is most known for his service as Information and Broadcasting Minister during the Emergency period. He has also invited controversies during this period. For instance, he banned Kishore Kumar’s songs on All India Radio because Kishore Kumar had refused to sing at a function of Congress Party.

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Updated: March 05, 2014