“How are you? Where are you staying?” These would be the first two questions that Satish Sharma, pilot and politician, would ask every single party worker who met him in New Delhi.
Rahul Mishra, a former spokesperson of the Indian Youth Congress from Amethi said, “He always met one, not as a politician, but as an elder”. Mishra’s brother was one of the many who Sharma got admitted to the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi in Amethi and later helped him get a job.
His only question to me was, “Is he your real brother,” recalled Mishra.
The man who always had ‘Captain’ preceding his name was a politician by chance much like his friend, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was thrust into politics after the death of his brother Sanjay. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, it fell upon Sharma to contest elections from Rae Bareli and Amethi—the two constituencies often referred to as Gandhi family boroughs. His task was to keep the seats within the family. And he never lost sight of the fact—preferring to be a Gandhi loyalist above a Congress loyalist. Party insiders recall that such was his bond with the family that he was probably the only member who addressed Sonia Gandhi by her first name.
Born on October 11, 1947 at Secunderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Sharma was Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli in the 10th, 11th and the 13th Lok Sabha. From 1986-1991 he was a member of the Rajya Sabha and served as Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism. From 1993-96 he served as Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. In 1998, he lost to Sanjay Singh who had contested from a BJP ticket in Amethi. Between 1999 and 2000 he was on the Committee of Transport and Tourism while from 2000-2004 he remained on the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The last of his three Rajya Sabha terms was in 2016 from Uttar Pradesh. He was elected unopposed but except for appearing to file his nomination, he did not even bother to come to take his winning certificate. Age, a general tiredness with politics and the dismal fortunes of the Congress in the state had something to do with it—but it was also that Sharma had done the duty entrusted to him—keeping the family seats safe till Rahul Gandhi was ready for the electoral battle.
Sharma was a politician credited with ‘settling’ many Congress workers from Rae Bareli, Amethi and Sultanpur—liberally granting gas agencies and petrol pumps; and helping secure jobs.
In 1996, in an appeal brought to the Supreme Court, he was rapped for “…arbitrary, discriminatory, mala fide, wholly illegal and …. liable to be quashed (allotments)…. in his capacity as a Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas”.
The Court also observed, “We have no doubt in our mind that Capt. Satish Sharma knew that the allottees were relations of his personal staff, sons of Ministers, sons/relations of Chairmen and members of the Oil Selection Boards…” and slapped him with a fine of Rs 50 lakh.
Sandeep Tiwari, then a much junior Congress worker was with him when the court made the pronouncement. He remembers that a media horde was waiting outside the court and Sharma chose to dodge it but left in Tiwari’s car. When the matter of the fine came up, other leaders offered that they would chip in. Sharma however was dismissive. “He would have none of it and said that he would pay it on his own. He said others are punished for taking away from the public, the court has deemed it right to punish me for giving to the people. But if I had the chance to do it again, I would do it exactly the same way”, recalls Tiwari.
Sharma was schooled at Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun, after which he went on to complete his Airlines Transport Pilots Rating Course at Kansas in USA. He held an Airlines Transport Pilot’s Licence in India.
His profile on the Lok Sabha members page lists aviation sports, gardening and reading as his hobbies.
Aviation of course remained his greatest passion. He was a member of the Delhi Flying Club since 1981 and of the Aero Club of India since 1984. He also served as the Vice-President of the Federation of Aeronautics International, Paris. In addition, he was the President of the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association.
Veerendra Madan, spokesperson of the state Congress unit said, “It would be difficult to find a leader like him who was so approachable to a common party worker”.
His organisational strengths and management skills were exceptional and much beyond his public flamboyance.
Tiwari’s last meeting with Sharma was one and a half months ago. And amidst all the other discussions, Sharma added as always—“Never be disloyal to the family”. That could well be Sharma’s epitaph.
