Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (25 September 1916 – 11 February 1968) was an Indian philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and political scientist. He was one of the most important leaders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the present day Bharatiya Janata Party.
In 1951, when Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Deendayal was seconded to the party by the RSS, tasked with moulding it into a genuine member of the Sangh Parivar. He was appointed as General Secretary of its Uttar Pradesh branch, and later the all-India General Secretary. The acumen and meticulousness shown by Deendayal deeply impressed Syama Prasad Mookerjee and elicited his famous remark:
“If I had two Deendayals, I could transform the political face of India.”
Upadhyaya edited Panchjanya (Weekly) and Swadesh (Daily) from Lucknow. In Hindi, he has written a drama Chandragupta Maurya, and later wrote a biography of Shankaracharya. He translated a Marathi biography of Hedgewar, the founder of RSS.
Here are major goverment projects named after him:
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana is a Government of India scheme designed to provide continuous power supply to rural India.
The initiative is named in honour of Indian political philosopher Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
It is one of the key initiatives of the Modi Government.
The government plans to invest ₹756 billion (US$11 billion) for rural electrification under this scheme. The scheme will replace the existing Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).
The DDUGJY scheme will enable to initiate much-awaited reforms in the rural areas. It focuses on feeder separation (rural households & agricultural) and strengthening of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure including metering at all levels in rural areas. This will help in providing round the clock power to rural households and adequate power to agricultural consumers .The earlier scheme for rural electrification viz. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) has been subsumed in the new scheme as its rural electrification component.
Deen Dayal Antyoday Upchar Yojna
Deen Dayal Antyoday Upchar Yojna is a government of Madhya Pradesh scheme to provide free health care to poor families.
The scheme was launched in September 2004.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana or DDU-GKY is a Government of India youth employment scheme.
It was launched by on 25 September 2014 by Union Minsters Nitin Gadkari and Venkaiah Naidu on the occasion of 98th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. It aims to target youth, under the age group of 15–35 years. A corpus of Rs 1,500 crore and is aimed at enhancing the employability of rural youth. Under this programme, disbursements would be made through a digital voucher directly into the student’s bank account as part of the government’s skill development initiative.
