Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi


Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was a noted Congress politician, former Union Minister and a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Raiganj of West Bengal and was a member of the Indian National Congress party. After nine years in coma after a massive stroke, he died on 20 November 2017, aged 72.

Career

Dasmunsi was President of Indian Youth Congress in West Bengal from 1970 to 1971. He entered the Indian Parliament in 1971. He became a minister for the first time in 1985, when he was sworn in as Union Minister of State, Commerce. Within his home State, he was known for his strong anti-Left credentials.
He was the cabinet minister in Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting during the first term of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This posting led to several controversial decisions, including several bans of Western television networks, including a three-month ban on the Sony-owned television network AXN and Fashion TV following the broadcast of programs deemed "obscene" by Dasmunsi. Dasmunsi was also responsible for the popular, if controversial, decision to require Indian sports broadcaster Nimbus Communications to share broadcast rights for Indian cricket matches with the state television network, Doordarshan — this despite Nimbus paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast Indian cricket matches over four years.
Dasmunsi served as the President of the All India Football Federation for almost 20 years.

Career milestones

Dasmunsi was married in 1994 to Mrs. Deepa Dasmunsi, a social worker from Kolkata. They have a young son, Priyadeep Dasmunshi.
Dasmunsi suffered from numerous problems like diabetes and hypertension during his prime. He suffered a massive stroke and paralysis on 12 October 2008, leaving him in minimum conscious state. He was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and was later shifted to Apollo Hospital in New Delhi. He remained on life support, and was diagnosed with a complete failure of the left ventricular system. In November 2009, Dasmunsi was temporarily moved to Düsseldorf, where he underwent stem cell therapy in an attempt to reverse some of the loss of brain functions caused by the stroke.
Since Dasmunsi's hospitalization, his wife Deepa has to some extent taken over his political mantle; she was elected from Raiganj in 2009.
On 10 October 2011, the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi advised his family to take him home and care for him there.
After lingering for nine years in coma, Dasmunsi finally died on 20 November 2017, a week after his 72nd birthday. His dead body was taken to his ancestral home in Raiganj, West Bengal, and was cremated at the local crematorium.