Gurgaon: Seventeen days after he was grievously wounded in a Maoist strike, Congress leader and former union minister V C Shukla (pictured) yesterday became the 29th victim of the deadly May 25 attack on a party convoy in Chhattisgarh.
Shukla, 84, who was the main architect of media censorship during the 1975-77 Emergency slapped by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, died around 2.30pm in Medanta Medicity Hospital here.
A former union minister, he was shot in his chest, abdomen and thigh and had lost a lot of blood in the attack on the Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, which claimed 28 lives.
TV grabs had shown Shukla lying slumped in his car seat with his white kurta drenched in blood. He was flown in an air ambulance to Delhi and taken to Medanta Medicity Hospital here.
Shukla was in a critical condition since his arrival at the hospital two weeks ago, Yatin Mehta, chairman of Medanta’s Institute of Critical Care, said.
The Congress leader was operated upon for intestinal and liver injuries and remained critical in the Intensive Care Unit with vital organ support, the statement said.
President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi were among the several leaders who condoled his death, while the news left his supporters in the state grieving. The Chhattisgarh government has announced three-day state mourning.
Dozens of people thronged his residence-cum-farm house Radheshayam Bhawan in Raipur soon after his death was confirmed and his close aides tried to console people who were crying and beating their chests to mourn his death.
Vidya Charan Shukla will be remembered for imposing censorship on the media and putting journalists, including top editors, behind bars during the Emergency.
He was former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s hatchet man during her hated Emergency era (1975-77) when he was the information and broadcasting minister.
Elected to the Lok Sabha nine times since 1957, Shukla deserted the Congress for the first time in 1977 when Indira Gandhi was voted out. During his career, Shukla also served in the ministries of external affairs, parliamentary affairs, water resources, defence, home, communications, finance, planning and civil supplies. IANS
