Minoo Masani

Minocher Rustom "Minoo" Masani (20 November 1905 – 27 May 1998) was an Indian politician, a leading figure of the erstwhile Swatantra Party.

He was a three-time Member of Parliament, representing Gujarat's Rajkot constituency in the second, third and fourth Lok Sabha.

[1] He served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, representing the Indian National Congress.

[3] In August 1960, he along with C. Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga formed the Swatantra Party, while international Communism was at its peak.

[6] He began his professional life as an advocate at the Bombay High Court in 1929 before joining the Indian independence movement the following year, during the civil disobedience campaign.

He was in the Nashik jail in 1932 when Jayaprakash Narayan came in contact with him and they launched the Congress Socialist Party in 1934 together.

[7] After his jail term was over he entered legislative politics, He got elected mayor of Bombay Municipal Corporation.

[3] After Stalin's Great Purge and takeover of Eastern Europe, Masani moved away from Socialism and became a supporter of free market economics.

Post-independence, Masani's political convictions propelled him to support "democratic socialism" in India as it "avoided monopoly, private or public".