Mohan Sanjibhai Delkar (19 December 1962 – 22 February 2021) was an Indian politician and tribal rights advocate, who was elected seven times as a member of Lok Sabha from Dadra and Nagar Haveli constituency, in the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. He had been part of Indian National Congress (INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) (JDU) at various times, and had also founded his own party Bharatiya Navshakti Party for some period.
Political career
Mohan Delkar was born on 19 December 1962 to Sanjibhai Delkar. Sanjibhai was elected to Lok Sabha from Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1967 as Indian National Congress candidate and joined Morarji Desai's NCO faction when the party split in 1969. He lost 1971 Lok Sabha election as NCO candidate.
Mohan Delkar started his career as a trade union leader in Silvassa and fought for the rights of tribal people working in different factories there. In 1985, he started Adivasi Vikas Sangathan for the tribal people. In 1989, he was elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from Dadra and Nagar Haveli constituency as an independent candidate. In 1991 and 1996 he was re-elected as an Indian National Congress candidate from the same constituency. In 1998, he was again elected to the Lok Sabha as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the same constituency. In 1999 and 2004, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha as an independent and the Bharatiya Navshakti Party (BNP) candidate respectively; a party that he had formed. On 4 February 2009, he re-joined the Congress. and in 2019 he distanced himself from the Congress and was elected as an independent politician. However, in 2020, he joined the Janata Dal (United) party.
Educational and community projects
In July 2003, Delkar established the Svargiya Sanjhibhai Rupjhibai Memorial Trust (SSRMT), named after his father, with the mission to improve quality of higher education in the tribal region of Dadra & Nagar Haveli. The campus spread over 50 acres of land in Silvassa comprises four college that are affiliated with Pune University; SSR College of Arts, Science and Commerce, SSR College of Pharmacy, SSR College of Education and SSR Institute of Management and Research In 2018, Delkar gave part of the SSR Memorial Trust's land for a token rent of one rupee to the local administration for establishment of the fifth college, NAMO Medical Education and Research Institute. For the Adivasi tribal people to have community function spaces he built a community hall called Adivasi Vikas Bhavan at Jawhar.
Death
Background
On 5 July 2020, Delkar posted a video on YouTube and Twitter threatening to resign as Lok Sabha MP claiming that local administration was tormenting him. Delekar stated, "All my efforts to get justice are blocked and stonewalled by these people. They are even trying to frame me in fake cases, my supporters, the organisations I run or work for are targeted and the people in it are also hounded." Delkar can also be heard saying that BJP leaders, the bureaucracy, police, investigating agencies, and local goons "were constantly harassing him at all levels." Sachin Sawant of Congress stated that an investigating officer had allegedly even told Delkar, "He has received an order from above".
On 19 September 2020 in parliament, he raised the issue of "misbehaviour" by local officials "as part of a conspiracy" claiming that on Liberation Day (2 August), he was "denied the right to address the people of the region as an MP". Abhinav Delkar, son of Mohan Delkar, stated that local administration had made things difficult for them and their supporters. He further stated that his father's supporters and tribal workers had been sacked from their jobs in a local government school because they had supported him in elections. He stated that attempts of demolishing the local university SSR College of Arts, Science and Commerce were made which his father managed to stop through a stay order from the court".
Suicide
Delkar travelled to Maharashtra, to attend a court hearing of one of his supporters who was previously held in judicial custody at Silvassa sub-jail for carrying out illegal liquor smuggling in name of running a hotel. Delkar hanged himself at the Hotel Sea Green, Mumbai on 22 February 2021, leaving a 15-page suicide note. The note held politicians and administrative officials responsible for "injustice", "insult" and "bias" meted out to him, and specifically named Praful Khoda Patel.