From April 6, 1948 to April 8, 1950, he was also Commerce Minister (at the time, Industry was separate).
Recently, a friend asked me if I knew anything about Kshitish Chandra Neogy (1888-1970). I did, but only the bare bones. For someone who was so important once, it is surprising how little is known about him and how little has been written. He was a member of the first Cabinet of Independent India, from August 15, 1947, to April 8, 1950. In most lists, he will show up as Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation. If one thinks of planning areas in Delhi such as Nizamuddin, Jangpura, Lodhi Colony and Khan Market in the period immediately following Independence, Neogy had a role. What happened on April 8, 1950? Because of the 1950 Nehru-Liaquat pact, Syama Prasad Mookerjee resigned from Cabinet. Everyone knows that. Along with Mookerjee, Neogy also resigned. Not everyone knows that.
Neogy’s name does not necessarily figure in the lists of finance ministers. R K Shanmukham Chetty was the first FM, from August 15, 1947, to August 17, 1948 (he resigned because of allegations) and John Mathai became FM on September 22, 1948. Who was the FM in between? It was Neogy, for a brief period of 35 days. He never presented a Budget, which may be the reason why his name doesn’t always figure in lists of FMs.
From April 6, 1948 to April 8, 1950, he was also Commerce Minister (at the time, Industry was separate). In Parliamentary debates, you will find him responding to questions on fish imported from Pakistan and jute exported to Pakistan, and other questions on surgical instruments, tea-chests, bicycles and import licensing in general. His speech in Parliament on March 11, 1949, was provocation enough for Dawn to take umbrage.
“Commerce Minister, Mr K C Neogy’s speech in the Indian Parliament on Friday [March 11]… appeared to have taken too many things for granted in too few words. While we appreciate the increasing difficulties of the neighbouring Dominion in the matter of trade and sympathise with Mr Neogy who has a dismal tale to tell his Parliament, we cannot allow some of his assumptions with regard to Pakistan to go unchallenged… In suggesting what he called ‘a joint economic policy between India and Pakistan’ and in visualising economic union and even Customs union between the two countries, [he] was at best unilaterally wishful.”
Though he resigned from the Cabinet in April 1950, Neogy was made the chairman of the First Finance Commission (FC) in 1951. One could say this report set the template for all future FC reports. It is understandable that the 13th FC should decide to inaugurate a conference room named after Neogy. Partha Sen, a distinguished trade economist who worked in various institutions (including the Delhi School of Economics), was invited on the occasion and we were told he was there by virtue of his being Neogy’s grandson.
Neogy’s son was Prithwish Neogy, the illustrious professor of art history. I found a case Kamala Sen filed against the Registrar of Cooperative Societies about a plot of land in Friends Colony, which mentions Prithwish Neogy as her brother. I deduce Partha Sen is Kamala Sen’s son. Perhaps Partha Sen should write something about his maternal grandfather.
In Economic Weekly (precursor to the EPW) of May 1956, I found the following. “At last Shri K C Neogy has been vindicated. His projected minute of dissent has become a part of the Second Five-Year Plan. Shri Neogy’s right to have his say has been respected. He may prove to be a true prophet of despair and that would be his final if sad triumph over the contents of the monumental volume that he denounced in no uncertain terms. But for the present, he is proceeding on leave to have a well-merited holiday at a hill station. The talk of his resignation, which started even before he joined the Commission, has evaporated and despite differences with V T Krishnamachari (then deputy chairman) and Gulzari Lal Nanda (then member), he might find the atmosphere in the Planning Commission more congenial for his work (due to the appreciation of the Prime Minister for his point of view) when he returns to his desk towards the end of June.” This was at the time of the Second Five-Year Plan (1956-61).
Earlier, in 1946, he was chairman of the Advisory Planning Board, set up by the Interim Government. That report on planning and development shaped the Planning Commission and the concept of the Five-Year Plans. He was a Member of the Constituent Assembly (from Bengal).
I find no evidence of his having taken part in Constituent Assembly debates. But his views did shape the Seventh Schedule and Article 246.
Incidentally, Neogy was a member of the 1927 Indian Cinematograph Committee. He was also a member of the Indian Railway Enquiry Committee. (I am not sure whether it was the one in 1937 or in 1947.) In 1946, he was a member of the Nuclear Commission (chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt), which led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the May 1946 diary of Roosevelt, I found the following account: “Yesterday afternoon, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights virtually finished the major part of its current work. There remains, of course, the consideration of the report of the Sub-commission on the Status of Women, which will come today, and the final going-over of the Commission’s whole report as put together in one document by the secretariat and the rapporteur, K C Neogy of India.”
The writer is chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM. Views are personal
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First uploaded on: 13-06-2024 at 08:39 IST
