In life, Purno A’gitok Sangma wore many a hat. He worked as a lecturer, a lawyer and a journalist before he finally plunged into politics that took him to places. Ever charming and smiling, he could win over both friends and foes in no time. It’s perhaps because of such rare qualities that he, as speaker, conducted the proceedings in the Lok Sabha with elan in 1996-98 when the government in power had a fractured mandate.
Born about a fortnight after India attained Independence, Sangma symbolized the inclusive character of Indian democracy. Despite hailing from a small state, he rose to prominence at the national level in various capacities.
In 1977, Sangma entered the holy precincts of Parliament as a representative from Tura constituency in his native Meghalaya. Four years before this, he had become the vice-president of the state Youth Congress. The nine-time Parliamentarian served as the chief minister ofMeghalaya from 1988 to 1990.
Son of a farmer couple, Dipchon Ch. Marak and Chimri A. Sangma, fromChapathi village in west Garo Hills, Sangma had a number of ministerial stints at the Centre. Many remember him or his contribution as industry minister who boosted cement production in the country. When he was coal minister, he turned his department into a profit-making enterprise.
He introduced plantation crops for export in the northeast when he held the post of commerce minister. When he took charge of the labour ministry, he initiated social security measures such as pension and wages schemes for industrial and unorganized sector workers. As information and broadcasting minister, he worked for liberalized usage of airwaves and investments in the electronic media.
Sangma, a Christian, hit the headlines in 1999 when he, along withSharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, broke off from the Congress and founded the Nationalist Congress Party, the basis of which was their resentment against Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins. The trio was initially called the Amar, Akbar, Anthony of Indian politics. In 2004, Sangma split the NCP and merged his faction with the Trinamool Congress to form the Nationalist Trinamool Congress.
A year later, he resigned as a Trinamool MP and got elected to Parliament as an NCP candidate. In 2008, he quit the Lok Sabha to contest the assembly election in Meghalaya. In 2012, he parted ways with the NCP over his decision to fight for the post of the President of India. In January 2013, he associated himself with the Nationalist People’s Party, which was formed in Manipur years ago.
A graduate from St Anthony’s College in Shillong, Sangma was multilingual, with good proficiency in Hindi, Assamese and Bengali apart from English and his native Garo language. He did his post-graduation in international relations from the Dibrugarh University and also got a degree in law.
Sangma is survived by his wife Soradini and their sons Conrad and James and daughters Agatha and Christie.
Agatha was the youngest minister in the Manmohan Singh government. While Conrad is the leader of the opposition in the assembly, James is a legislator from the NPP.