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Mr. M. Arunachalam was born on March 4th, 1944 at Vellanaikotai
village, Tirunelveli District in Tamil Nadu.
He had his school education from High
School, Pulliangudi and Vasudevanallur and College education from
V.0. Chidambaram College, Tuticorin and St. Xavier’s College,
Palayamkottai. He had his Post Graduation at Gandhigram University
and Bachelor of Law from Law College, Chennai.
He is an agriculturist and a social worker.
He had been continuously working for the upliftment of the
downtrodden and weaker sections of the society. He courted arrest on
May 1st, 1978 for agitating against the special court’s order to
arrest Smt. Indira Gandhi.
Mr. Arunachalam has travelled widely to
countries like USA, Germany, Italy, France, Africa, Sri Lanka,
Singapore, Thailand. Maldives, Vietnam, Turkey, South Korea, U.K..
Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Netherlands & Sweden. Mr. Arunachalam led a
Congress-I delegation to USSR for participating in an International
Youth Festival. He also led an official delegation to Geneva
(Switzerland) to attend the 85th Session of International Labour
Conference of ILO from 3- 19th June 1997.
He is a lawyer by profession and was
General Secretary of Tirunelveli District Youth Congress from
1974-1977 and President of Tamil Nadu Youth Congress from 1977
to1981. A Member of the Lok Sabha since 1977 Mr. Arunachalam became
Minister of State for Industrial Development in the Cabinet of late
Shri Rajiv Gandhi (8th Lok Sabha 1985-89). He became Minister of
State for Urban Development on June 21st 1991 and Minister of State
for Industry (Department of Small Scale Industries and Agro & Rural
Industries) from January 18, 1993.
Mr. Arunachalam was again elected to the
11th Lok Sabha from Tenkasi Parliamentary Constituency for the sixth
consecutive time, as a candidate of TMC. On 1.6.1996, he became a
Cabinet Minister in the United Front Government and assumed the
charge of the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment w.e.f.
3.6.96.
On 1.7.1996 he assumed charge as Minister
of Labour and remained there till 8.6.1997 after which he assumed
the charge of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers on 9.6.97.
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