Shri Bali Ram Bhagat, a warhorse freedom fighter with rich parliamentary knowledge and praiseworthy knowledge of parliamentary procedures and exercises, in January 1976, was elected as the Speaker of the Fifth Lok Sabha.

A man, who was straightforward and firm and fair-minded, Bali Ram Bhagat indeed possessed all the qualities for the job of the speaker. For the House and its traditions, he also had a deep respect. Since Independence Bhagat had the shortest tenure as Speaker, which is less than fourteen months. But these fourteen months were enough for him to left his ineffaceable impress on the proceedings of the House. His consequent career testified to his intrinsic talents and abilities as Governor. His capabilities have been in evidence in various forums, national as well as international. Bali Ram Bhagat was an agriculturist and political and social worker by profession.

This multifaceted persona, Ball Ram Bhagat was born on 7 October 1922 in Patna in the State of Bihar. After doing his graduation from Patna College and later he obtained a Masters Degree in Economics from Patna University. He has a passion for politics from his student days. His intense patriotism led him to throw into the freedom struggle. At the tender age of seventeen, in 1939, he joined the Indian National Congress. Afterwards he took part in many struggles, which were launched by the party for the liberation of the country from the foreign rule.

To join the `Quit India Movement` in 1942, he left the college and stayed on underground for a period of two years. In 1944, the All India Students Congress was instituted with his initiative as a founder member and he has also held the position of the General Secretary of the Bihar Pradesh Students Congress during 1946-47. In 1950 when he was elected to the Provisional Parliament, Bhagat`s alliance with national politics began. This true patriot with his keen interest in politics upholds his position from where he could serve his motherland with unselfishness and persistent zeal. He actively involved himself in various discussions and established himself as an able parliamentarian during these two years.

The parliamentary career of Bhagat, from the Provisional Parliament to the First Lok Sabha and then to the successive Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Lok Sabhas, was long and unremitting. He held a range of Ministerial portfolios during this period. From 1952 to 1956, he served the post of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance. He became the Deputy Minister of Finance in the year 1956. He continued in that position for a period of seven years, in this manner he also had distinction of holding the same portfolio during three uninterrupted Lok Sabhas.

During 1963-1967, Bhagat became the Minister of State for Planning and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, held the former post till January 1966. He also had the opportunity for a short while in 1967, to serve as the Minister in the Ministry of Defense. After that in the same year he became the Minister of State for External Affairs. As the Minister of Foreign Trade and Supply, he was elevated to the Cabinet rank in 1969. Later, for a period of eight months, he was the Minister of Steel and Heavy Engineering.

Bhagat made rich input to the proceedings of the House as a gifted parliamentarian and a forceful speaker. As a Minister, he never came to the House without fully prepared for the Question and debates and discussions. He fetched respect from various quarters with his parliamentary skill and persuasiveness, which coupled with a productive approach to the troubles facing country. Even the members of the Opposition admired him for his deep understanding of the implementation of the various Ministries, which he handled from time to time.

With such strong background Bhagat was designated as the Speaker of the Fifth Lok Sabha on 5 January 1976 alongside the vacancy caused by the resignation of Speaker Dr. G.S. Dhillon. Bhagat, legionnaire Parliamentarian with vast and varied administrative experience, was nominated Speaker when the country was under Emergency. Measuring his pinnacle to the office of the Speaker, Bhagat informed the members that as the prime institution, parliament must ever be primarily concerned with popular will and articulations of the people. As he stressed, the debates should always be inclined to the fulfillment of this lofty goal. With his charming persona he guaranteed the members that he was but a servant of the House and he equally pertained to all sections of the House.

Bhagat has a great respect for parliamentary traditions and propriety and that is why he was considered as the sticky label. He was the one person who laid great emphasis on discipline and decorum of the parliament. By the ruling, which he gave on a `Calling Attention`, notice is his best-illustrated concern for bureaucratic decorum. With this he set a new rule. It would be restricted for 30-35 minutes as far as the taken on Calling Attention is concerned and the member Calling Attention should also only take 3-4 minutes with the other members taking 2-3 minutes each.

In this regard the minister`s reply should be complete but brief. As a Speaker, Bhagat was at all times tranquil and collected even in trying situations and maintained the basic norms of parliamentary conduct. He was very particular about shielding the privileges of the members.

A question of dispensation regarding the manacling of a member of the Lok Sabha came up before the House, during his Speaker ship, while he was being taken from the jail to the Magistrate`s Court in Bihar. Lamenting the action of the apprehensive officials as highly indecent. The Speaker Bhagat, and which was in utter disregard and disobedience of the instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Government of Bihar observed handcuffing a member of the Lok Sabha. He expressed the hope that relevant instructions would be strictly and thoroughly followed in future.

Bali Ram Bhagat was a man of principles, always believed in the Rulebook. He was distressed to see that on a particular day, when the Question Hour was taken up, most of the members whose names were listed in the question hour were not present in the House. Therefore, the Question Hour warped after a short while. As he expressed, he was seriously concerned over the development, Speaker Bhagat observed that this was an untoward situation, which should not happen again.

In order to make stronger the functioning of the Committee on Government Assurances and to make it more effective, in March 1976, the First Conference of the Chairmen of the Committee on Government Assurances was held during Bhagat`s Speaker ship. He accentuated that steps should be taken to ensure that the Government honored and implemented the assurances given on the floor of the House.

Speaker Bhagat inaugurated the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST), an integral Division of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, set up with a view to ensuring smooth, efficient and prompt services to the legislative bodies both at the Center and in the States, in 1976. Speaker Bhagat was persuaded by the enormous significance of the various training programmes and he was confident that in the course of time, the Bureau would develop into a prestigious center of advanced study and research and training in the field of parliamentary science.

At various international forays, Bhagat represented the Indian Parliament during his parliamentary career. It was started at 1951, when he attended the Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Istanbul and later in 1981 in Havana. He also adverted the 4th Commonwealth Speakers` and Presiding Officers` Conference held in London in September 1976. Besides, he attended the meetings of the Colombo Plan Conference in the years 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1964.

On economic cooperation, trade and development, Bhagat had several Ministerial assignments. He has been served as the Co-Chairman of the joint Committee on Studies in Economic Development in India and Japan. In the wake of the meetings, a body set up, between Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Japanese counterpart, Nabusuke Kishi. During 1963-75, he held this position for about twelve years. Leading economist, businessmen and administrators from both countries also represented this body and thus it played a leading role in the development of vital sectors of the economy.

Bhagat was an active contributor in the elementary meetings of the Asian development Bank in 1964, as he firmly believed in international economic cooperation. Accomplishing in the setting the Bank in Manila on 1965, he signed the Charter as the special Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the President of India. As the Governor of the Asian Development Bank, he also had the privilege of attending the inaugural session of it in Tokyo in 1966. In 1954, he became the Alternate Governor to the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and again in 1958. Bhagat was the member of UN Sub-Commission on the action of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities from 1972 to 1977, before moderating in 1972.

He was the Leader of Indian Delegation to the Conference of UN Economic Commission for Asia and Far-East (ECAFE) held in Tokyo in 1955 and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) held in Delhi in 1968. In 1968 and again in 1985, he led the Indian delegation to the UN General Assembly Session. Bali Ram Bhagat was also served as the Deputy Leader of the Indian Delegation, which led him to attend the inaugural meetings of ECAFE and UNCTAD in Bangkok and in Geneva in 1956 and 1964, correspondingly, and in 1969 as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit held in London and in Nassau (The Bahamas) in 1985.

Bhagat led the Indian Delegation to the United Nations Commission as a human rights activist, on Human Rights, which was held in Geneva in 1982-83. In 1983, on the occasion of thirty-third anniversary of the Human Rights Commission, Bali Ram Bhagat had the eminence of being the Chairman of the UN Seminar. As an idiosyncratic part of the Political and Civil Rights, he laid special emphasis on the International Instruments of Economic Rights notably the right to work.

The rights of migrant labor, was another distinguishing feature of his contribution on the subject of people of one country working in another country without equal rights. It is Bhagat, who stressed that the migrant labor should enjoy the same civil and economic rights as the local citizen of a particular country at the various international conferences. During his association, the Covenants on the Rights of Woman and the Child were also organized with the international human rights bodies. Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi also recognized Bhagat`s active and significant role in building beneficial international economic cooperation in the Colombo Plan, ECAFE and Asian Development Bank and in promoting Indo-Japan cooperation.

In the 1980`s general elections, Bhagat returned to the Seventh Lok Sabha. He was re-elected to the Eighth Lok Sabha as well. In 1985-86, for a short curse, he became the Minister of External Affairs in Rajiv Gandhi`s Government. In February 1993, Bhagat was appointed as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, a post that he held for four months only. Later, from 30 June 1993 till 1 May 1998, he persisted the Governor of Rajasthan. Men with good qualities of head and heart as also his long years in public life were major assets in his role as the Governor.

Bhagat has also been a renowned journalist and writer. He edited two underground weeklies "Our Struggle" and "Non-Violent Revolution" during the `Quit India Movement`. In 1947, he started a progressive Hindi weekly from Patna, `Rashtra Doot`. Bhagat has wrote two books on international issues: `Non-Alignment- Present and Future` and `Commonwealth Today`, besides being a regular contributor on economic, national and international affairs in leading national newspapers. Bhagat was also dedicated to the progress of the rural areas and the weaker sections. This active social worker has never missed any chance to struggle for the socio-economic uplift of the landless labor and other underprivileged section of the society. He always enunciates the voice of the unfortunate class through his writings.