Ex-education minister Dhiman dies at 82

SHIMLA: Senior BJP leader and former education minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman (82) also known as 'Guruji' died on Tuesday morning. Since 1990, he had remained the member of state assembly and presently was representing Bhoranj assembly constituency. Before joining politics, Dhiman was a school teacher and had also taught former chief minister and leader of opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal.
In BJP regime, Dhiman had remained education minister twice from 1998-2003 and 2008-2012 under the tenure of Dhumal as chief minister.He was elected to the state assembly for consecutive sixth term in December 2012. "Demise of Guruji is a great personal loss to me as he had remained my teacher and had always shown me the right path as a guide. His contribution as education minister is a milestone in the education sector of Himachal Pradesh," Dhumal said.
Dhumal along with other senior BJP leaders including Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti besides MLAs Vijay Agnihotri and Narender Thakur were present at the cremation held Dialri village of Hamirpur district. Last rites were performed by his son Anil Dhiman.
BJP state president Satpal Singh Satti said Dhiman was champion of value-based politics and never confined himself as the leader of particular constituency and always dedicated himself to the welfare of state. Governor Acharya Devvrat, chief minister Virbhadra Singh, speaker B B L Butail besides Congress and BJP leaders have expressed their grief over his demise. Virbhadra said Dhiman, who also remained cabinet minister, was a committed politician who contributed a lot for the development of his assembly segment and state.
Dhiman was born at Dialri village on November 17, 1934, and was educated at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. After completing his education, he served in education department for 29 years as trained graduate teacher for 13 years and as headmaster of high school for 16 years. After taking voluntary retirement from education department he joined BJP on July 8, 1989. He remained as member of BJP's state executive committee from 1990-93 and state delegate of BJP from 1990-92. He also remained vice president and president of Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes morcha of BJP during 1993-95 and 1995-98, respectively. He was elected to the state legislative assembly in 1990; re-elected in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2007 from Mewa constituency which after delimitation has been renamed as Bhoranj.