Congress stalwart Bhatia dies of Covid at 100

Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, May 15

Congress stalwart and six-time Amritsar MP Raghunandan Lal Bhatia passed away after a brief illness here late last night. Bhatia was to turn 101 on July 3.

He was hospitalised after testing positive for Covid. He is survived by son Ramesh Bhatia and daughter Saroj Munjal. His body was cremated with full state honours by following the Covid protocol today.

Survived two terror attacks

• In 1985, RL Bhatia was hit by two bullets in an attack outside his residence
• In 1990, he survived another attack by fleeing after his car was damaged

Making his foray into politics by a turn of fate, Bhatia had an illustrious political career, serving as the Minister of State for External Affairs in the PV Narasimha Rao government. He also remained the Governor of Kerala (2004 to 2008) and Bihar (July 2008 to June 2009).

Born into a business family, Bhatia began his political career after the demise of his brother Durgadas Bhatia, who was the sitting MP from Amritsar. He successfully won the 1972 bypoll and repeated the feat in 1980, 1984, 1991, 1996 and 1999. It was cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, parachuted by late mentor Arun Jaitley from the Amritsar seat during the 2004 General Election, who ended his electoral innings.

After his exit, it took one-and-a-half decades for the Congress to make a come-back in Amritsar, with Capt Amarinder Singh winning the seat in 2014.

Bhatia began his political career as a Communist activist, which worked to his advantage later when he contested the elections from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket.

In the 1970s and 80s the Communist parties had a sway over several Assembly seats here due to a large number of textile, fan and carpet factories, which had employed a large number of people. His another brother Sham Sunder Bhatia was associated with the RSS, while his fourth sibling, Dr JL Bhatia, was a TB specialist.

Bhatia’s demise evoked emotive remarks from politicians cutting across party lines. Many Congress leaders from the region called him their political mentor. His political style of keeping a clean image in public won him goodwill.

Congress MLA Rajkumar Verka, recalling the contribution of Bhatia, said his service was utilised in resolving bilateral matters with Pakistan and China. Then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had utilised his services to hold parleys to defuse tension with China.

BJP leader Lakshmi Kanta Chawla said she had cordial relations with Bhatia. She had gone to congratulate him when he turned 100 last year.