C. M. Stephen

Chembakassery Mathai Stephen (23 December 1918 – 16 January 1984) was an Indian politician who served as the Union Minister of Communications of India from 1980 to 1982 in the Republic of India.^[1]

C. M. Stephen
Union Minister of Communications of India
In office 2 March 1980 – 2 September 1982
Preceded by	Bhishma Narain Singh
Succeeded by	Anant Sharma
Union Minister of Shipping and Transport
In office 3 September 1982 – 2 February 1983
Preceded by	Veerendra Patil
Succeeded by	Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy
3rd Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha
In office 12 April 1978 – 9 July 1979
Preceded by	Yashwantrao Chavan
Succeeded by	Yashwantrao Chavan
Member of the Lok Sabha
In office 1971–1977
Constituency	Muvattupuzha
In office 1977–1979
Constituency	Idukki
In office 1980–1984
Constituency	Gulbarga
Member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly
In office 1960–1964
Constituency	Thrikadavoor
Personal details
Born	(1918-12-23)23 December 1918 Mavelikkara, Travancore State, British India (present–day Kerala, India)
Died	16 January 1984(1984-01-16) (aged 65) Mavelikkara, Kerala, India
Political party	Indian National Congress (I) (1951–1984)

In this Indian name, the name Chembakassery Mathai is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Stephen.

C. M. Stephen was born on 23 December 1918 to Eapen Mathai and Esther of Chembakassery house in Cherukole, Mavelikkara. During his school days, Stephen was active in the Balajanasakhyam (promoted by Malayala Manorama). This helped him to develop leadership qualities, oratorial and organizing skills.

Career

After completing B. L., Stephen started his career as a journalist. He also started 'Pouraprabha' an evening daily. Through this daily, he supported the Travancore Congress and attacked the rule of C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer. In 1949, he gave up his career as a journalist and started practising law. In 1951, he joined active politics and in the same year became the D.C.C. president of Kollam.^[2]

He was a close associate of veteran Congress leaders P. T. Chacko, Pattom Thanu Pillai and R. Sankar and provided leadership in the Vimochana Samaram during 1958-59 period as an associate of P. T. Chacko, Pattom Thanu Pillai, R. Sankar and others.

He was also one of the founding fathers of Indian National Trade Union Congress, the trade union wing of the Indian National Congress. He won the State elections in 1960, 1965 and 1971. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament from Idukki in the 1976 parliamentary elections. He was a close aide of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He was the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party - Indira faction during 1978–79.

C. M. Stephen also served in the Union Cabinet under Indira Gandhi, most notably as the Union Minister for Communications (1980–84). Shashi Tharoor in his 'India: From Midnight to the Millennium' quotes Stephen's statement in Parliament that "the telephone was a luxury and not a necessity" as symptomatic of India's failure to invest in infrastructure and communications before the Reforms of 1991.^[3]

Dharam Singh gave up the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat to accommodate C. M. Stephen, the then Union Home Minister in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet, after he lost the election in Delhi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee.^[4]

C. M. Stephen was buried at St. Mary Orthodox Cathedral, Mavelikkara.^{[citation needed]}