Mahatma Gandhi’s and C. Rajagopalachari’s grandson Gopalkrishan Gandhi is all set to be the next vice presidential candidate from the UPA. It is being reported that unlike presidential candidate’s choice all from the UPA are unanimous on this one.
Gandhi had joined IAS as an Officer in 1968 and had served in Tamil Nadu state till 1985. Thereafter, he held various positions including Secretary to Vice-President of India (1985 – 1987), Joint Secretary to President of India (1987 – 1992) and so on. In 1992 he was Minister (Culture) in High Commission of India, UK and Director, The Nehru Centre, London, UK. He was holding various diplomatic and administrative positions for the rest of his career including High Commissioner of India to South Africa and Lesotho (1996), Secretary to President of India (1997-2000), High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka (2000), and Ambassador of India to Norway, and Iceland (2002), before his retirement from IAS in 2003.
On 14 December 2004, he was appointed Governor of West Bengal following the expiry of the term of office of incumbent Viren J. Shah. He was succeeded by Devanand Konwar (the serving governor of Tripura), who was given additional charge of West Bengal. For a few months in 2006 he also took on additional duties as the Governor of Bihar.
His view on CBI that the agency is not like DDT as it is known – the dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane, the colourless, tasteless, odourless insecticide, but the department of dirty politics had sparked controversy.
Gandhi teaches at Ashoka University, where he is a Professor of History and Politics.
Mamta Banerjee congratulates Gopal Gandhi for being unanimous choice of all opposition parties for Vice President in her tweet. “His credentials are his biggest asset”, she says.
