A. K. Antony

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viceprimeminister[%d]* | regexp89 = assuming[%d]* | website | width | year }} Template:Indian nameArackaparambil Kurien Antony (born 28 December 1940) is an Indian lawyer, attorney and statesman who served as the Minister of Defence of India from 2006 to 2014,<ref name="Cabinet India 2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> making him the longest serving Defence Minister in India.Template:Efn<ref name="Antony longest Defence"/> He previously served as the 6th Chief Minister of Kerala from 1977 to 1978, 1995 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2004.<ref name="Antony Rajya Sabha">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He currently serves as the Chairman of the Disciplinary Action Committee of the All India Congress Committee,<ref name="Congress stand">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Congress Antony Disciplinary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Congress Working Committee,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and member of the Congress Core Group and Central Election Committee.

He has thrice served as Chief Minister of Kerala and remains as the youngest leader to assume the office at the age of 36. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2001. He also held the portfolio of Civil Supplies from 1993 to 1995. Additionally, he also served as Treasurer of All India Congress Committee from 1994 to 1995.

He served as a Member of the Rajya Sabha from 1985 to 1995 and again from 2005 to 2022. He was also elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly on five occasions from the constituencies of Cherthala (1970, 1996 and 2001), Kazhakootam (1977) and Tirurangadi (1995).

Early life and educationEdit

A. K. Antony was born<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> at Cherthala, near Alleppey in Travancore<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as the son of Arackaparambil Kurien Pillai and Aleykutty Kurian.<ref name="Antony mother">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father died in 1959 and Antony self-financed part of his education through odd jobs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Antony completed his primary education at Holy Family Boys High school (Lower primary) and Government Boys High school (Upper primary), CherthalaTemplate:Efn and completed his Bachelor of Arts from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam and Bachelor of Law from Government Law College, Ernakulam.<ref name="Antony MoD">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Political careerEdit

Antony entered politics as a student leader in Cherthala Taluk (Alappuzha District) as an activist of the Kerala Students Union under the guidance of M. A. John.<ref>M. A. John, Congress leader, passes away, The Hindu, 23 February 2011.</ref> He has been an active leader of many strikes like Oru Ana Samaram (Single Penny Strike). He became the youngest president<ref name="Antony appoint Cabinet"/> of Kerala Students Union in 1966<ref name="Antony appoint Cabinet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and also served in the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) before becoming an All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary in 1984. When he became KPCC president in 1972, he was the youngest person to hold that post. He was elected again as KPCC president in 1987, and was defeated by Vayalar Ravi in the KPCC presidential elections in 1991.Template:Citation needed

Election	Constituency	Result	Majority
1970	Cherthala	Template:Yes2	360
1977	Kazhakootam	Template:Yes2	8669
1995	Tirurangadi	Template:Yes2	22269
1996	Cherthala	Template:Yes2	8385
2001	Cherthala	Template:Yes2	6860

Congress politics and party factionEdit

Antony founded the Congress (A) political party when he split from the Indian National Congress (Urs), a splinter group of the Indian National Congress The party was primarily active in Kerala and joined the LDF ministry headed by E. K. Nayanar during 1980–1982. After the fall of the Nayanar ministry, the party merged with the Congress in 1982,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but Antony was not given any office until the death of Indira Gandhi. The members of the party have continued as a faction in the local congress afterwards.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Chief Minister of KeralaEdit

Template:See also Following accusations in the Rajan case, K. Karunakaran resigned and Antony, the state Congress president was appointed as the sixth Chief Minister of Kerala,<ref name="Antony Delhi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on 27 April 1977 becoming the youngest Chief Minister of the state<ref name="Antony appoint Cabinet"/><ref name="Antony Profile">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> at the age of 36. Antony subsequently contested a by-election from Kazhakuttam constituency in Thiruvananthapuram as he was not a member of the assembly and won by healthy margin of over 8 thousand votes. However, differences of opinion with Indira Gandhi and Karunakaran, especially over the emergency soon cropped up, leading to a fracture in the state Congress legislature party, with the two factions being led by Antony and Karunakaran respectively. Eventually, exactly one and half years after he had been sworn in as Chief Minister, he resigned from the post as well as the Congress party following its decision to field Indira Gandhi as the candidate in the by-election in Chikmagalur, Karnataka.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Antony had to wait for over 15 years before becoming Chief Minister for a second term; again, on the back of Karunakaran's resignation this time over the controversial ISRO spy case. On 22 March 1995, after a week-long deadlock, Antony was sworn in as Chief Minister, despite stiff opposition from Karunakaran. This term also lasted only one year before the United Democratic Front led by Antony narrowly lost the assembly elections in May 1996. Thereafter, Antony served as Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2001.

In 2001, Antony led the United Democratic Front to a historic victory of 100 seats, with the Congress party winning its largest share of seats in the state assembly. On 17 May 2001, a triumphant Antony was sworn in as Chief Minister; for the first time, he was already serving as an MLA before taking the mantle of Chief Ministership.

However, his third term was extremely rocky and unstable, with Karunakaran refusing to cooperate with him and trying every tactic to overthrow him from office. This led to an erosion of public support as well as credibility. By the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress was a badly divided house and Antony had the disgrace of leading the party to its worst electoral performance since 1967. The final nail on the coffin was the defeat of K. Muraleedharan, the Electricity Minister in Antony's cabinet (incidentally Karunakaran's son) in the Wadakkanchery by-election, a seat widely perceived to be a Congress bastion. with his back on the wall, Antony had no option but to resign as Chief Minister.<ref name="Antony appoint Cabinet" /><ref name="Antony Profile" /> He was succeeded by his close confidante, Oommen Chandy.

It was at Antony's behest that the decision to construct the new Legislature Complex was taken in 1977. During his tenure, he introduced the Unemployment Allowance, Festival Allowance for the State Employees, Prohibition of Arrack and the steps initiated to revive the economy of Kerala.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Several initiatives were taken in the fields of Higher education, science & technology, Biotechnology (including the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology at Thiruvananthapuram), and Information technology, under his ministries.<ref name="mn_1">Template:Cite book</ref>

File:The Chief Minister of Kerala Shri A.K Antony calls on the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on June 19, 2004.jpg

Chief Minister of Kerala A.K Antony with 13th Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh in June 2004

It was also under his rule that the Kannur University was inaugurated by bifurcating the University of Calicut. The University of Sanskrit was founded in 1994.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref> The Indian Institute of Management and the National Institute of Technology at Kozhikode were established in the years 1996 and 2002 respectively.<ref name=growth>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Akshaya project was implemented in 2002 by providing E-literacy to the people those who haven't it and opening Akshaya centres in the remote rural areas of the state, thus ensuring Internet availability all over the state, aiming to make Kerala the first complete E-literate state of India.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Several initiatives were taken in the fields of Higher education, science & technology, Biotechnology, and Information technology, under his ministries.<ref name="mn_1"/> The Infopark at Kochi was established in the year 2004.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The IT@school project and introduction of Information Technology in school level were initiated in 2001 by Third Antony ministry, making Kerala the first Indian state to do so.<ref name="it">Template:Cite news</ref>

Antony carried out Asian Development Bank aided "Modernisation of Government Plan". He also liberalised education by allowing several private engineering and medical colleges to open in Kerala and championed the state as an investment destination.Template:Citation needed He also ordered the closure of the Kerala Coca-Cola plant in 2004 citing drought and the non-availability of drinking water.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Government officesEdit

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File:A. K. Antony presenting a copy of 'Sainik Samachar' to Marshal of the Air Force, Arjan Singh.jpg

AK Antony presenting a copy of 'Sainik Samachar' to Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh to mark the centenary celebrations of the Armed Forces' journal 'Sainik Samachar', in New Delhi in 2009

Union Minister for Civil SuppliesEdit

Template:See also Antony was a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha between 1993 and 1995 and was the Minister for Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution for a year in 1994 during the tenure of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. He resigned on moral grounds as food minister in 1994 when his ministry was involved in a sugar import scandal, despite there being no allegations against him.<ref name="Antony appoint Cabinet"/><ref>No allegations against AK Antony in Sugar import scandal: Possible successors to Manmohan Singh CNBC – 27 May 2009</ref>

Union Minister for DefenceEdit

Template:See also {{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:C-130J IAF Induction.jpg

Defence Minister A. K. Antony with 19th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force Norton Schwartz presenting a model of the C-130J Super Hercules in 2011

File:120606-D-BW835-226 (7344433376).jpg

A. K. Antony with 23rd United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in 2012

File:A. K. Antony and the Three Service Chiefs, General V.K. Singh, Admiral Nirmal Verma and Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik after paying tributes at the Amar Jawan Jyoti to mark Vijay Diwas.jpg

AK Antony with service Chiefs, General V.K. Singh, Admiral Nirmal Verma and Air Chief Marshal P. V. Naik at the Amar Jawan Jyoti to mark Vijay Diwas, 39th anniversary of the victory day of the 1971 India-Pakistan war in New Delhi in 2010

In 2005, Antony entered the Rajya Sabha and was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers as Defence Minister following Natwar Singh's expulsion from the Congress and Pranab Mukherjee's transfer to the Ministry of External Affairs. After the Congress again won the elections in 2009 and formed the government once again under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Antony retained the portfolio of Defence for the second term becoming the longest-serving Defence Minister of India in a continuous stint for 8 years.<ref name="Antony tenure Defence">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Antony longest Defence">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His "Buy and Make Indian" campaign saw the cancellation of billion of dollars in purchases of foreign arms, while at the same time stunting domestic production by restricting investments.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Other positionsEdit

He held the post of Chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata (2012 to 2014), President of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and Chancellor of Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (2006 to 2014).Template:Citation needed

Political party roleEdit

In the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, Antony was the senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Accommodation, Economic Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, and Security.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He is considered as political guru of Rahul Gandhi.<ref name=" Antony guru">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Antony's political skills and long experience in government have also led him to heading a large number of committees of Ministers in the government, a device that has been employed to obtain consensus within the members of the governing coalition on contentious issues.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="EGoM Role expansion">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

GoM	EGoM
Location of National War Memorial	Spectrum Allocation
Reports of Administrative Reforms Commission	Gas Pricing and Commercial Utilisation
Corruption	Ultra Mega Power Projects
Recommendations with regard to Commonwealth Games	Mass Rapid Transit System

IssuesEdit

Civil Services reformEdit

In order to professionalise the Civil Services, Antony led the decision on creation of a Central Civil Services Authority (CCSA) to oversee the higher bureaucracy.<ref name="Antony CCSA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Antony babudom">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Impeachment of Chief Justice of IndiaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In 2018, Antony is one of the signatories<ref name="CJI Impeach">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="CJI Impeach2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

Public imageEdit

Antony is known for his incorruptible record and simple personal life<ref name="Clean Antony">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="saint antony">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and his intolerance towards corruption in public life.<ref name="Antony Defence">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Antony large good">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Antonypm>Template:Cite news</ref> He was ranked among the top 10 Most Powerful Indians for the year 2012 by The Indian Express.<ref name="Powerful Indians 2012">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

10th Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee admired Antony<ref name="PM ABV Antony"/> for his simplicity, gentleness and his zeal for reforms and change as a way to ensure acceleration of Kerala's all-round development.<ref name="PM ABV Antony">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After Pranab Mukherjee was nominated for the 2012 President of India election, Antony was placed as the second-in-command after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Cabinet of India.<ref name="Cabinet India 2012"/><ref name="Number 2 government">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Leaked diplomatic cables said Antony was one of the only two leaders, the other being P. R. Dasmunsi, who criticised Sanjay Gandhi during the 1976 AICC session in Guwahati during Emergency when the latter's political standing was on the rise, asking "what sacrifices he has made for the party or the country".<ref name="Antony Sanjay Gandhi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

File:India's defence minister votes - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg

A. K. Antony with his family outside a polling station in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala in 2009

Antony is married to Elizabeth who is a Kerala High Court lawyer<ref name="Lawyers Kerala">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and is the founder of the Navoothan Charitable Foundation.<ref name="NCF Charity">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They have two sons.<ref name="Antony son1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Antony son2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In April 2023, his son Anil Antony joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Antony identifies himself as an atheist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

HonoursEdit

Year	Name	Awarding organisation	Ref.
2008	Malayali of the Year 2007 Award.	Asianet.	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit