179. Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894-1980)

Varahagiri Venkata Giri ( 10 August 1894 – 23 June 1980), commonly known as V. V. Giri, was the fourth President of the Republic of India from 24 August 1969 to 23 August 1974. He served as Acting President of India from 3 May 1969 to 20 July 1969, before getting elected.
He was born to Varahagiri Venkata Jogaiah in a Niyogi Telugu Brahmin family, residing in Brahmapur (Berhampur) in the Ganjam district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. The town and district are now part of the state of Odisha. His father was an eminent lawyer and migrated to Brahmapur from Chintalapalli village, now part of East Godavari District - Andhra Pradesh State.
In 1913, he went to University College Dublin to study law, but was expelled from Ireland in 1916 after becoming involved with the Sinn Féin movement.^{[citation needed]} Involvement which brought him into close contact with Éamon de Valera, Michael Collins, Patrick Pearse, Desmond FitzGerald, Eoin MacNeill, James Connolly and others.
Upon returning to India, he became heavily involved in the labour movement, becoming general secretary and then president of the All-India Railwaymen's Federation and twice serving as president of the All-India Trade Union Congress.
Giri became a member of the Imperial Legislative Assembly in 1934.
In the 1936 General Election in Madras, Giri was put up as the Congress candidate in Bobbili against the Raja of Bobbili and he won that election. He became minister of labour and industries in 1937 for the Congress Party government formed by C. Rajagopalachari in the Madras Presidency. When the Congress governments resigned in 1942, he returned to the labour movement as part of the quit India movement and was imprisoned by the British. He was lodged in Rajahmundry jail.
After India gained independence, he was first appointed high commissioner to Ceylon and then successfully ran for parliament in 1952. He was elected for 1st Lok Sabha from Pathapatnam Lok Sabha Constituency and served as minister of labour until resigning in 1954.
The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) was founded in 1957 by a distinguished group of academicians and public men engaged in promoting the study of labour and industrial relations. The team was headed by Shri Giri.
He served successfully as governor of Uttar Pradesh (1956–1960), Kerala (1960–1965) and Mysore (1965–1967).
He was elected as the third Vice President of India in 1967. Giri became Acting President of India in May 1969 upon the death in office of President Zakir Hussain. The official Congress candidate for the presidential election of 1969 was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. However, Giri filed his papers as an independent candidate and enjoyed the tacit support of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. A third candidate in that election was C D Deshmukh who was supported by right wing opposition parties. In a closely contested election, none of the candidates won an outright majority of the preferential votes. On counting the second preferential votes, Giri emerged the winner. He was sworn in on 28 August 1969 and held office till 28 August, 1974.

As President of India Giri led 14 state visits to countries in South and South East Asia, the Soviet bloc and Africa.

He received India's highest civilian decoration, the Bharat Ratna, in 1975.

He was a prolific writer and a good orator. He has written books on 'Industrial Relations' and 'Labour problems in Indian Industry'.