Jyotiraditya Scindia

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (born 1 January 1971) is an Indian politician who serves as the Minister of Civil Aviation and Steel in the second Narendra Modi ministry since 2021. He is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing the state of Madhya Pradesh since 2020. He is a former Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2002 until his defeat in the 2019 Indian general election. He is former member of the Indian National Congress (INC) from 2001 to 2020 and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2020. While a member of the INC, he served as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Corporate in the second Manmohan Singh ministry from 2012 to 2014.

Jyotiraditya Scindia
Scindia in June 2022
Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India
Assumed office
7 July 2021
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byHardeep Singh Puri
Minister of Steel, Government of India
Assumed office
6 July 2022
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byRCP Singh
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Assumed office
20 June 2020
Preceded bySatyanarayan Jatiya
ConstituencyMadhya Pradesh
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office
24 February 2002 – 23 May 2019
Preceded byMadhavrao Scindia
Succeeded byDr. K. P. Yadav
ConstituencyGuna
Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Corporate, Government of India
In office
28 October 2012 – 26 May 2014
Prime MinisterManmohan Singh
Preceded byVeerappa Moily
Succeeded byPiyush Goyal
Personal details
Born (1971-01-01) 1 January 1971
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party
(2020–present)
Other political
affiliations		Indian National Congress
(2001–2020)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1994)​
Children2
Parent
RelativesScindia family
Residence(s)Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India
New Delhi, India
Alma materHarvard University (B.A.)
Stanford University (M.B.A.)

Scindia is the son of politician Madhavrao Scindia, and a grandson of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last ruler of the princely state of Gwalior during the British Raj in India. Jyotiraditya was briefly the titular Crown Prince of Gwalior in 1971, until the privy purses and titles of Indian royals were abolished by the government in 1971.

Early life and education

Scindia was born on 1 January 1971 in Mumbai to Madhavrao Scindia and Madhavi Raje Scindia. He originally belongs to Kurmi caste.[1][2] He was educated at Campion School, Mumbai and at The Doon School, Dehradun.[3] At Doon, Scindia was a contemporary of Rahul Gandhi.[4]

Scindia was admitted to St. Stephen's College, Delhi, University of Delhi. He later transferred to Harvard College, the undergraduate liberal arts college of Harvard University, where he graduated with BA degree in Economics in 1993. In 2001, he received a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.[5][6]

Scindia is a grandson of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last Maharaja of the princely state of Gwalior. His father Madhavrao was a politician and a minister in the government of Rajiv Gandhi. His mother, Madhavi Raje (Kiran Rajya Lakshmi Devi), hails from the royal family of Nepal. He is married to Priyadarshini Raje Scindia.[7]

Political career

Indian National Congress
Scindia in 2008 as Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology

On 30 September 2001, the Guna constituency fell vacant due to the death of Scindia's father, the sitting MP Madhavrao Scindia, in an airplane crash in Uttar Pradesh.[8] On 18 December, he formally joined the INC and pledged to uphold the "secular, liberal and social justice values" of his father.[9]

On 24 February, he won the by-election in Guna, defeating his nearest rival, Desh Raj Singh Yadav of the BJP, by a margin of approximately 450,000 votes.[10] He was re-elected in May 2004,[11] and was introduced to the Union Council of Ministers in 2007 as Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology. He was then re-elected in 2009 for a third consecutive term and became Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.[12]

He was appointed Minister of State for Communication in 2007 later as minister of state independent charge for Power in a cabinet reshuffle which drafted a number of younger politicians into the Indian cabinet, including two other scions of princely families, R. P. N. Singh and Jitendra Singh.[13]

He was among the richest ministers in the UPA government with assets valued at ₹25 crore (US$3.1 million) including investments in Indian and foreign securities worth over ₹16 crore (US$2 million) and jewellery worth over ₹5.7 crore (US$713,831).[14] In 2010, he filed a legal claim to be the sole inheritor of the property belonging to his late father worth ₹20,000 crore (US$3 billion), however this was challenged in court by his aunts.[15]

He was tasked by the Indian Planning Commission with preventing a repetition of the July 2012 India blackout, the largest power outage in history, which affected over 620 million people (about 9% of the world population).[16][17][18] In May 2013, he claimed that checks and balances had been put in place to prevent any recurrence of grid collapse and that India would have the world's largest integrated grid by January 2014.[19]

In 2014, he was elected from Guna.[20] In 2019, he lost his seat to Krishna Pal Singh Yadav. In 2019, he was appointed as General Secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh West along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.[21]

Bharatiya Janata Party

Citing disgruntlement with the INC leadership, Scinidia quit the Congress party on 10 March 2020. The Congress party then released a statement claiming that he had been expelled for "anti-party activities." He joined the BJP on 11 March 2020.[22][23] Other MLAs loyal to him also resigned from the INC and their MLA posts. This led to the 2020 Madhya Pradesh political crisis which in turn resulted in the resignation of Kamal Nath as chief minister on 23 March 2020. Nath's replacement, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was sworn in as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh on 23 March 2020.[24]

On 19 June 2020, Scindia was elected a BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.[25] On 7 July 2021, he was appointed as the Minister of Civil Aviation in Second Modi ministry after a cabinet reshuffle in July 2021.[26]

In February 2022, he was appointed Prime Minister Modi's special envoy to Romania to oversee the evacuation of Indian nationals in Ukraine resulting from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a part of Operation Ganga, he oversaw the evacuation efforts of students and Indian professionals through Bucharest and Suceava.[27]

Other roles

Scindia is the chairman of the regional Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA).[28] After the spot fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League was made apparent and Sanjay Jagdale, a member of the MPCA, resigned from his post as secretary in the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Scindia spoke out against corruption in Indian cricket.[29]

He is the president of the Board of Governors of Scindia School, which was founded by his great-grandfather, Madho Rao Scindia, in 1897.[30][31] He is a hereditary patron of Daly College, which was established in 1870 to educate the children of the royalty, nobility, and aristocracy of Central Indian princely states of the Marathas, Rajputs, Mohameddans and Bundelas.[32] He is also the chairman of Madhav Institute of Technology and Science.[33]

See also

References
  1. M, Dilip; al (12 March 2019). "Congress has never been a party of OBCs, but something's changing now". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  2. "Diggy-Jyoti feud may have roots in history". The Sunday Guardian Live. 14 March 2020. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  3. "The evolution of Honorable Shri. Jyotiraditya Scindia". Times of India. 2 June 2002. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
  4. "The prince who will be king". 5 October 2001 – via The Economic Times - The Times of India.
  5. "Honorable Shri. Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia - Minister of State for Commerce & Industry". Department of Commerce, Government of India. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  6. "Jyotiraditya M. Scindia - Minister of State for Commerce & Industry". Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India. Archived from the original on 22 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
  7. "Jyotiraditya Scindia's complete family tree explained". Oneindia. 11 March 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  8. "Madhavrao Scindia Dies In Plane Crash". Outlook. 30 September 2001. Archived from the original on 26 June 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  9. Prasad, K.V. (18 December 2001). "Like father, like son". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  10. "Jyotiraditya Scindia wins Guna by 4.5 lakh votes". Rediff.com. 24 February 2002. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  11. "Jyotiraditya Scindia wins Guna by 4.5 lakh votes". India Today.com. 24 May 2004. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  12. "Jyotiraditya Scindia became Minister of State for Commerce and Industry". Business Standard India. business.standard.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  13. Hartosh Singh Baal (5 November 2012). "The Princelings of India". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  14. "Patel, Scindia among richest ministers in India". Rediff Business. 10 September 2010. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  15. Ambreesh Mishra (13 November 2010). "Scindia Feud: Castles in the heir". India Today Magazine. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  16. Helen Pidd (31 July 2012). "India blackouts leave 700 million without power". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  17. "India's Mass Power Failure Worst Ever in World History". Outlook. Press Trust of India. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  18. Sanjay Datta (20 November 2012). "Grid safety tops Montek Singh Ahluwalia's wish list for Jyotiraditya Scindia". Archived from the original on 21 April 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  19. Anupama Airy (13 May 2013). "India's power grid set to be world's largest". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013.
  20. "Jyotiraditya Scindia wins Guna seat". Economic Times. 16 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  21. "Guna Election Results 2019 Live Updates: Krishna Pal Singh of BJP Wins". News18. 23 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  22. "Stung by Scindia resignation congress claims it expelled guna royal for anti party activities". News18. 10 March 2020. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  23. Deepak Upadhyay (10 March 2020). "Jyotiraditya Scindia resigns from congress". Live Mint. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  24. "22 rebel Cong MLAs, whose resignation led to fall of Kamal Nath govt, join BJP". Live Mint.
  25. "Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh among 19 elected to Rajya Sabha". The Hindu. 19 June 2020. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  26. "Modi cabinet rejig: Full list of new ministers". India Today. Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  27. "'Operation Ganga in full gear!': Jyotiraditya Scindia meets Indian Ambassador to Romania, Moldova on evacuation of Indian nationals in Ukraine". Free Press Journal. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  28. "MPCA, Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, Indore | Cricket in Madhya Pradesh | Cricket | Indore | MPCA | CK Naidu | Holkar Cricket | Holkar Stadium". Mpcaonline.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  29. "Scindia calls for time-frame to complete spot-fixing enquiry". Z-News, India. 24 June 2013. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  30. Amit Roy (1 January 2006). "Public schools in India woo British Asian pupils". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  31. "The Scindia School: Fees and Funding". 2013. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.
  32. "Patrons". Daly college. Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  33. "Chairman". MITS Gwalior. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
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