Priyaranjan Dasmunshi (English: Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, born- 13 November, 1945; died- 20 November, 2017) was a senior Congress leader and former President of All India Football Federation. He was an MP in the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He was an MP from Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency of West Bengal. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi was the former Information and Broadcasting Minister of India.
Priyaranjan Dasmunshi was born on November 13, 1945 in West Bengal. He was first elected MP from the South Kolkata Lok Sabha seat in 1971. In 1985, he joined Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet for the first time. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi last contested and won the Lok Sabha elections from Raiganj seat in 2004. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi was very interested in sports. He was the President of All India Football Federation for 20 years. It was during his tenure that the National Football League was started in 1996. The top football clubs of the country started participating in it. The National Football League is now known as the I-League.
Priyaranjan Dasmunshi became the President of West Bengal Youth Congress in 1970 at the age of 25. Next year in 1971, he reached Parliament by winning the South Calcutta seat. After this he won Howrah Lok Sabha seat in the year 1984. In 1985, he became a Union Minister for the first time. Dasmunshi also had to face defeat in the elections. He had to lose the Howrah seat twice in 1989 and 1991. But then he reached Lok Sabha by capturing Raiganj seat for two consecutive times in 1999 and 2004.
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Munshi also had a keen interest in sports, he was also the President of ‘All India Football Federation’ for about 20 years. The attraction towards football in West Bengal is in no way less than cricket. Controversial decisions: In the year 2004, in the government of Manmohan Singh, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi was not only the Information and Broadcasting Minister but was also the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. As the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, he was much in the news. Sometimes he banned AXN and Fashion TV and sometimes he gave the rights to telecast sports to Doordarshan. Not only this, he also wanted to control the media and was preparing to bring a law in this regard, but then he fell ill. Because of these decisions, he also had to face a lot of criticism.
Priyaranjan Dasmunshi married Kolkata social worker Deepa Dasmunshi in 1994 after a long friendship. Both have a son, Priyadeep Dasmunshi. Once in an interview given to BBC, he had said, “I have many friends, but my biggest friend is my wife. After a long friendship, she got married to me, but I have many more friends. In terms of friendship, I don’t care about party.” This was the reason that when the Congress was ousted from power at the Center and the Bharatiya Janata Party assumed power, doubts were being expressed from many quarters that the money being given by the government for the treatment of Dasmunshi could have been stopped. But the then Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had made it clear that the government had no such intention and Dasmunshi’s treatment would continue with government money. Harsh Vardhan had said at that time that Dasmunshi has done a lot of work for the society and now it is the turn of the society to do something for him. This kind of talk from the mouth of opposition leaders in itself gives an idea of the personality of a leader.
Former Union Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi died on November 20, 2017. He was admitted to AIIMS after a heart attack. After this he lost his ability to recognize people and his ability to speak. After this he went into coma. Since then he was in coma in Apollo Hospital. After paralysis, blood supply to his brain was cut off. However, the rest of the body did not suffer much damage. But, since the brain controls the rest of the body, Dasmunshi remained bedridden for 9 years. A tube was inserted into Dasmunshi’s neck for breathing. Apart from this, a tube was inserted in the stomach, through which liquid food was given to Dasmunshi. They could not recognize the people around them
