The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, is now being led by Uday Mandal as its National President. Samata Party once launched Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar. It was an offshoot of the Janata Dal, with the alleged casteism of the parent party being the reason given for the split. The party has socialist leanings; at one point, it wielded considerable political and social influence in North India, particularly in Bihar. In 2003, most Samata Party members joined Janata Dal (United). Only a faction led by MP Brahmanand Mandal remained in the Samata party and continued to use the party name and symbols.
George Mathew Fernandes was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the 22nd Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. A veteran socialist, he was a member of the Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting from Bombay in 1967 till 2009 mostly representing constituencies from Bihar. He was a key member of the Janata Dal and the founder of the Samata Party. Holding several prominent ministerial portfolios during his career, including communication, industry, railways, and defence, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, in 2020.
Jaya Bachchan is an Indian actress and politician. She is serving as member of the parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party since 2004. Having worked in Hindi films and Bengali films, she is noted for reinforcing a natural style of acting in both mainstream and arthouse cinema. A recipient of several accolades, she has won a record nine Filmfare Awards and the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour awarded by the Government of India.
Tehelka is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper The Independent, the Tehelka was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and another colleague who worked together at the Outlook magazine after "an investor with deep pockets" agreed to underwrite their startup. Bahal left Tehelka in 2005 to start Cobrapost – an Indian news website, after which Tehelka was managed by Tejpal through 2013. In 2013, Tejpal stepped aside from Tehelka after being accused of sexual assault by his employee. Tehelka had cumulative losses of ₹66 crore (US$7.9 million) till 2013, while being majority owned and financed by Kanwar Deep Singh – an industrialist, a politician and a member of Indian parliament.
Asoka Mehta was an Indian freedom fighter and socialist politician. He helped organize the socialist wing Congress Socialist Party of the Indian National Congress, along with Rambriksh Benipuri, Jaya Prakash Narayan, and was heavily involved in the politics and government of the city of Bombay.
Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer and politician, who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.
The Barak Missile scandal was a case of alleged defence corruption relating to the purchase of Barak 1 Missile Systems by India. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigated the case and several people including R. K. Jain, former treasurer of the Samata Party were arrested. The CBI investigated the case and filed a First Information Report (FIR) on 10 October 2006, accusing politicians Defence Minister George Fernandes, Jaya Jaitly, R. K. Jain of receiving kickbacks from arms dealer and former Indian Navy officer Suresh Nanda.
Digvijay Singh was an Indian politician from the state of Bihar, and an associate of George Fernandes of Janata Dal and later Samata Party, now led by Uday Mandal its President. He represented Banka in the Lok Sabha a few times. He was elected to Rajya Sabha twice. He died on 24 June 2010 in London after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
Bashistha Narain Singh, is a politician from Janata Dal (United). He is a Member of the Parliament of India representing Bihar in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. He had served as Bihar state President of Janata Dal (United), the ruling party of the state. In January 2021, he was succeeded by Umesh Kushwaha to the post of Bihar state chief of JD (U). Previously, he was a member of Samata Party and was the President Bihar Samata Party from 1995 to 1998.
Operation West End was a sting operation conducted in 2001 by Indian news magazine Tehelka to expose defence deals conducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Over a seven-and-half-month investigation, special correspondents of the magazine filmed several corrupt defence officials and politicians of NDA government, including the BJP President Bangaru Laxman, accepting bribes and discussing kickbacks.
Nagasamy Ramachandran is a contemporary artist born in Paramakudi, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Received his bachelor's degree (distinction) and master's degree in painting and printmaking from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, University of Madras in 1999. To enhance his technical skill he undertook a course on Care of museum objects at Chennai Museum in 2005. He went to Edinburgh on a Visiting Artist Scholar to Scotland to learn Photo-polymer Etching at Edinburg printmakers in 2006. In 2008 he went to Edinburg College of Arts on Charles Wallace India Trust Award, to learn Glass making a special course BA (hons.). Other than these international credits he has received important national and state awards.
Brahmanand Mandal was an indian politician who served as a member of the Lok Sabha from Munger constituency for three terms under three different political parties: in 1991, as a member of the Communist Party of India, in 1996 under the Samata Party, and re-elected in 1999 as part of Janata Dal (United). He was the Ex. President of Samata Party.
Jayaram Jayalalithaa was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 1 January 1988 to 5 December 2016, she was the 5th and longest-serving general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a Dravidian party whose cadre revered her as their "Amma" (Mother) and "Puratchi Thalaivi".
Mathew Samuel is a former managing editor of the Indian news magazine Tehelka. He is one of the founding members of the magazine, and as a special correspondent there, he instigated Tehelka's biggest corruption investigation, Operation West End. This sting operation led to the resignation of four senior ministers of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and nearly brought down the BJP-led national government in 2001. The top politicians and officials caught in the sting were later convicted by the court of law.
Dastkar is an Indian non-government organisation working with craftspeople across India, for promotion and revival of traditional crafts of India. It was founded in 1981 in Delhi, by a group of six women, including Laila Tyabji, its current chairperson.
Laila Tyabji is an Indian social worker, designer, writer, and craft activist. She is one of the founders of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India. She was honored by the Government of India in 2012 with the Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. She is the daughter of late Badruddin Tyabji, ICS, who was a senior Indian civil servant and diplomat.
Venkataiah Srinivasa Prasad was an Indian politician from the state of Karnataka, who was recognised as an important Dalit leader in the old Mysore region. He served as a union minister from 1999 to 2004 as part of the Third Vajpayee ministry, and later as Minister of Revenue in the Government of Karnataka from 2013 to 2016. Prasad was elected to the Lok Sabha from Chamarajanagar six times starting 1980. His last win came from the same constituency in 2019, before he announced his retirement from electoral politics in 2021.
Ritika Mohan Singh is an Indian actress and former mixed martial artist who predominantly features in Tamil films, in addition to Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam films. After competing for India at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games and then participating in the Super Fight League, she played a leading role in Sudha Kongara Prasad's Tamil film Irudhi Suttru alongside R. Madhavan. She won Special Mention at the 63rd National Film Awards for her performance in the film. She received Filmfare Awards three times for the same role in three languages: Tamil, Hindi and Telugu (Guru). She has won a National Award, one SIIMA award, one Tamil Nadu State Film Award special Prize and three Filmfare Awards respectively.
Krishna Krishna Chettur ICS was an Indian civil servant and diplomat who served as India's first ambassador to Japan.
Deo Kumar Singh, commonly known by his nom de guerre Arvind Ji, Vikash Ji and Sujeet Ji, was an Indian politician who was the leader of the Indian Maoist movement and the Politburo Member of Communist Party of India (Maoist), a banned communist party in India. He spent his life as a student leader, a mass organiser and later led and strategised the guerrilla warfare against the Indian state.
