Jagdeep Chhokar, known for promoting election and political reforms in the country, died in Nový Dilli on Friday 12th September after suffering a heart attack. Chhokar was 81 years old and his wife Kiran Chokkar survived.
Chokkar was a founding member of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the body of an election guard dog behind many key petitions in the Supreme Indian court.
ADR is one of the petitioners in the current case in the Supreme Court regarding the Election Commission of India Special Intensive Revision (Sir) of the performance of electoral roles in a survey bound to Bihar.
In a recent exclusive interview with Livemint, Chhokar, he said “half Bihar can lose voting rights for Sir.”
Chhokar would spend time between New Delhi and Goa. Chhokar suffered a heart attack at 4 o’clock in his house in Delhi, New Delhi, New Friends Colony (NFC).
According to his wishes, his body would be donated to medical research.
“The loss of Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar is tragic. It has been drilled by the Association of Democratic Reforms, which provided years of election democracy.
“Not just the loss of a person”
Honors began to pour early after Chokkar’s death on Friday. RJD Manoi’s leader said Jageep Chhokar was not just a loss of man; It is the silence of conscience that tirelessly spoke about the integrity of Indian democracy.
“As the founder of ADR, he forced the nation to look in the mirror of his election practices and confront cracks below the surface of his democratic building,” Jha said in a post on X
Who was Jagdeep Chhokar?
Chokkar was known as a solid advocate of transparency in Indian politics, especially through his campaigns for free and fair elections. The Legal Battle of ADR, with him as one of the main petitioners, led to the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional bonds in February 2024. The organization also fought crime in politics.
Chokkar began his career as a mechanical engineer with Indian railways and later became a professor, dean and director responsible at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Since his retirement in 2006, Chokkar has fully devoted himself to activism for democracy until his last breath.
In 1999 he founded ADR together with his colleagues.
The loss of Prof Jagdeep Chhokar is tragic. He led the Association of Democratic Reforms that provided Yeoman Service in maintaining high standards of electoral democracy.
Chokkar began activism, together with his colleague Iim Trilochan Sastry, whose inspection of the nomination documents of the candidates attacked the elections of Lok Sabha from 1999 from Ahmedabad, which concerned fundamental issues concerning transparency.
Chokkar, engineering graduate, also made LL.B. (2005), PhD (1983) and MBA (1977). He taught in several countries, including Australia, France, Japan and the USA.
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