Madhavrao Scindia (Marathi: Hindi: ) (10 March 194530 September 2001)

was a prominent Indian politician and minister from the Congress Party. He was born into
the Scindia family, who formerly ruled Gwalior
He was born to the last ruling Maharaja of Gwalior, Jivaji Rao Scindia. He was educated at the Scindia
School, endowed by his family, in Gwalior, Winchester School and then at Oxford University.
After Indian independence in 1947, his father acceded to the Indian government and the kingdom of
Gwalior became part of the new state of Madhya Bharat, which in 1956 was merged into Madhya
Pradesh. Madhavrao followed the political tradition laid down by his mother Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia,
who was elected to the Lok Sabha (Lower house in the Indian Parliament) in 1971.
A nine-term member of the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia never lost an election since 1971, when he
won for the first time from Guna at the age of 26. He contested as an independent with the support of the
Jan Sangh, a party that his family had for long patronised. In 1977, he switched to the Congress
Party despite resistance from his larger family, and won the seat a second time. In order to avoid a direct
contest with his mother, he ran from the neighbouring constituency of Guna. But in 1984, he was
nominated the Congress candidate in Gwalior as a last-minute manoeuvre to defeat the Bharatiya Janata
Party's Atal Behari Vajpayee, and won by a massive margin. Since then Scindia contested from
either Gwalior or Guna and won on each occasion.
the 1984 election brought Scindia his first experience as a Minister. He made his mark as an excellent
administrator during his stint as Railways Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Ministry. He is credited with the
modernisation and computerisation of Indian Railways and with maintaining the most cordial and
professional relationship with his managerial cadres.
Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao made him Minister for Civil Aviation. He faced a turbulent period of
agitation by the staff of the domestic carrier, Indian Airlines, and as part of a strategy of disciplining the
workforce he leased a number of aircraft from Russia. Early in 1992 one of these aircraft crashed, though
without any loss of life, and Scindia promptly submitted his resignation. Although not known to be too
finicky about such notions as ministerial accountability, the prime minister accepted his resignation.
Scindia was later reinducted into the Cabinet in 1995 as Minister for Human Resource Development.
Scindia is also accredited with set up of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management
(IIITM) at Gwalior as an institution of repute, which got renamed after Atal Behari Vajpayee as ABV-IIITM.
In 1996, he along with Arjun Singh and other Congress dissidents had the opportunity to be part of
the United Front (U.F.) government at the Centre. Although his Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congresswas part
of the U.F., Scindia himself opted to stay out of the Cabinet. His first priority obviously was to return to the

Congress and resume his old political bonds. His opportunity came when Narasimha Rao was ousted as
Congress president after a string of indictments in corruption cases.
Scindia's political role and influence within the Congress party grew rapidly and he was seen as a
potential prime ministerial candidate. His tragic demise in what was reported as a plane "crash"
demolished many hopes.
His son, Jyotiraditya Scindia is a Member of Parliament to the seat that he held. He is presently a minister
in Dr.Manmohan Singh government as Minister of State, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. His
daughter Chitrangada Raje Singh is married to the Crown Prince of Kashmir.
He was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from 1990 to 1993.