New Delhi, May 18: Union minister of state for environment Anil Madhav Dave died here this morning after a cardiac arrest. He was 60.
Dave had been unwell since January but had been attending office regularly. He was at work all of yesterday, something acknowledged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his tweet on the minister's death. "I was with Anil Madhav Dave ji till late last evening, discussing key policy issues. This demise is a personal loss," Modi wrote. Dave's charge has been handed over to science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan.
Dave's staff said he complained of uneasiness this morning and was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). PTI quoted a senior doctor at AIIMS as saying: "The minister (Dave) was brought to AIIMS at around 8.50am. He was brought in a state of cardiac arrest. All measures were taken to resuscitate him. He was declared dead at around 9.45am."
Dave's body was brought to home briefly where Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari and Modi were among the dignitaries who paid tributes. Dave had been a member of the Rajya Sabha since August 2009 and represented the BJP on several parliamentary panels. Quiet and non-combative, he was also fondly remembered by many an Opposition leader.
His body was then flown to Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh for cremation at Bhandrabhan along the banks of the Narmada - a river he was passionate about - in keeping with "Wish and Will", a document he had drafted in 2012.
Modi tweeted an image of the document and tweeted: "This document is a manifestation of simplicity & selflessness in public life. It is an illustration of Nishkama Karma Yoga (action performed without the expectation of results)."
In the document, dated July 23, 2012, Dave had expressed a desire to be cremated at the venue of the Nadi Mahotsav (river festival) in Bhandrabhan with Vedic rituals and no elaborate arrangements. He had also put down in writing that no one should make a demand for a memorial of any kind in his name. Instead, they should plant and take care of trees and work to protect rivers and other water bodies.
An RSS whole-timer who cut his teeth in politics during the JP Movement of 1974, Dave had been "loaned" to the BJP in 2003 and was widely perceived to have been the architect of the strategy that led to the defeat of the Congress-led government of Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh in December that year. The Congress has not been able to return to power in Bhopal ever since. Dave had been closely in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state from 2003 to 2014.
He was made Union minister of state for environment, forests and climate change with independent charge in the first major reshuffle of the Modi cabinet in July last year. He held the office for less than a year.
A trained pilot, Dave once piloted a small aircraft over the Narmada. He had also penned eight books - six in Hindi and two in English, mostly on environment-related issues - and organised several shows Janata Raja, a Marathi play based on the life of warrior king Shivaji.
