Vice-President Was Trained In Ireland

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 15

Vice-President Was Trained In Ireland

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) NEW DELHI, May 7. The new Vice-President of India, Mr V. V. Giri, is a militant, Irish-trained trade unionist, and lawyer with a sense of humour.

He studied law in Dublin before embarking on the career in Indian politics that took him through the governorships of the Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Mysore states. Mr Giri, aged 72, was attracted by the Sinn Fein movement of the Irish revolutionaries and became friendly 'with some of its leaders before the British banned him from Ireland. He returned to India, joined Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement, and plunged into trade union affairs. Mr Giri led a rail strike in Bengal, founded the Railwaymen's Federation and eventually became president of the old, All-India Trade Union Congress. He represented Indian labour at international labour conferences in the 1920 s and 19305. He became Minister of Labour in Madras in 1937, and after Independence, was India’s High Commissioner in Ceylon. In 1952,Mie joined Nehru’s

Cabinet as Minister of Labour, but resigned because he did not agree with the Government’s amendment of a labour tribunal’s award to bank employees. In his new role as VicePresident, he will preside over the Indian Upper House, the Council of States, and act as President in the event of the President’s death or resignation, until the election of a new President.