Bijoy Krishna Handique
| Bijoy Krishna Handique | |
|---|---|
| Minister of State for Defence & Parliamentary Affairs, Mines & Chemicals and Fertilizers | |
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In office 2004–2009 |
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| Succeeded by | Dinsha Patel |
| Constituency | Jorhat |
| Minister of Mines, Minister of Development of North Eastern Region | |
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In office May 2009 – 18 January 2011 (Minister of Mines) July 2011 (Minister of DoNER) |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 December 1934 |
| Died | 26 July 2015 (aged 80) Jorhat, Assam, India |
Bijoy Krishna Handique (1 December 1934 – 26 July 2015) was an Indian politician who was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Jorhat constituency of Assam and was a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) political party. He was the only son of Krishna Kanta Handique, a renowned Indologist. B K Handique was a senior Member of Parliament from the North Eastern Region and represented the Jorhat Lok Sabha, Assam for six consecutive terms since 1991 to 2009. He also served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1980 to 1986. He had been elected to the Assam State Assembly in 1971 from the Jorhat Town constituency.
Handique studied English literature at Presidency College, Calcutta (now Kolkata). He went on to complete M.A. in English from the University of Calcutta.
He attended Jorhat Government Boys’ Higher Secondary School in his formative years.
In Class VII, he joined the local Students' Congress, during India's freedom movement. There, he mobilised other students in a 'Vote for Congress' campaign, before the Assam provincial elections of 1945. He organised literary circles for talks around freedom. This was much against the wishes of his father, who then wanted him to pursue a career in academics.
He became a member of Youth Congress formally in 1961.
In the early 1960s, Handique became concerned about the lack of an English medium school in the vast Upper Assam area. This led him to eventually establish the Hemlata Handiqui Memorial Institute [HHMI], the first English medium school in Upper Assam, in 1962. This eventually developed HHMI, which encouraged students to take up subjects as diverse as workshops on music and Shakespeare.
The task was not without its hiccups, though land for the school was purchased by Handique's family. Within months of the school starting its first classes, the Indo-China war of 1962 broke out. This created panic in Jorhat, and many teachers and students fled from the town. He assisted the Red Cross in their efforts at training and organisation. Handique donated his mother's jewellery to the war effort.
"Many people fled following the Chinese aggression and the fall of Tawang and Bomdila in the northeastern sector. There was great panic. Out first principal, J S Walters, went missing. He left without notice, taking only his bicycle with him. Due to fears of a full scale war, the school was closed for a month."
In 2012, the school celebrated its 60th anniversary. Handique composed a song for the occasion, set to tune by a former student.
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