Morarji Desai was born on this day in history, February 29, 1896. Born into a Brahmin family and raised in an orthodox religious environment, Morarji Desai overcame all obstacles to become one of the nation's most prominent freedom fighters and the fourth Prime Minister of India.
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai, better known as Morarji Bhai Desai, achieved unparalleled feats and distinctions in history, including being the only high-ranking stateman to receive the highest civilian honors from both India and Pakistan.
He was honored to receive the Indian Bharat Ratna and Pakistani Nishaan-e-Pakistan awards. He once said, "One should act in life according to truth and faith," which was the foundation of his beliefs throughout his life and during the freedom movement.
Morarji Desai was born in the village of Bhadeli in the Valsad district of the Bombay Presidency, which is now in Gujarat. He was raised in an orthodox religious environment because he was born into an Anavil Brahmin family. Morarji Desai graduated from St. Busar High School and then attended Wilson College in Mumbai to earn his bachelor's degree.
After that, in 1918, he joined Gujarat's civil service and began working as a Deputy Collector. However, he joined the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930 after quitting his British job in 1824. During the struggle for freedom, he served time in prison for this. In addition, freedom fighters favored him because of his tough spirit and sharp, dynamic leadership skills.
In 1931, he joined the All India Congress Committee and rose to become the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee's Secretary until 1937. Morarji Desai became the minister of Revenue, Agriculture, Forest, and Cooperatives under B.G. Kher when the first Congress Government office was established in Bombay province in 1937.
Political Career: Morarji Desai was arrested for his active participation in Satyagraha under Mahatma Gandhi prior to India's independence. He was released only in October 1941. He was detained once more in August 1942 for his support of the Quit India Movement, but he was freed in 1945.
He was elected as the Bombay Province's Minister for Home and Revenue in the 1946 State Assembly elections. He was given the position of Chief Minister of Bombay State later in 1952. In the Union Government, he was appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1956.
In 1958, he changed his portfolio to Finance. Be that as it may, with a distinction in the etymology of Desai and the Marathi talking populace in Bombay, there brought a quiet clash up in the personalities of people in general.
In 1960, he stoked the fire by organizing a demonstration for the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti that resulted in the deaths of 105 demonstrators. As a result, the central government was surprised, which led to the formation of the state of Maharashtra today. Desai was a committed Gandhian, but he disagreed with Jawaharlal Nehru's policies at the time.
Desai was viewed as a strong contender for the position of Indian Prime Minister in the wake of Nehru's ongoing decline in health due to his growing popularity within the Congress Party. However, he was defeated by Lal Bahadur Shastri in the 1964 elections following Nehru's death, allowing him to gain more support within the party. He ran for the position once more in 1966, following Shastri's death, but he lost to Indira Gandhi with 169:351 votes.
Nevertheless, in the cabinet of Indira Gandhi, he was given the position of Deputy Prime Minister in 1967. However, he found the fact that he was fired as Finance Minister to be disheartening, and as a result, he quit as Deputy Prime Minister in 1969. He voted for Organization Congress - Congress (O) after the Congress party split in the same year and became the most prominent opposition leader. In 1975, he went on an indefinite fast in order to get elections in the dissolved Gujarat Assembly.
In June 1975, elections were held, and the Janata Party prevailed with a clear majority. Desai was of the opinion that Indira Gandhi ought to resign after the Allahabad High Court's 1975 decision against her. Desai and a number of other opposition leaders were arrested on June 26, 1975, shortly after the Emergency was declared. The 18th of January, 1977, saw his release from prison.
Tenure as Prime Minister: After the Emergency was lifted, Desai rose to prominence among the masses due to his strong will and persuasive abilities. He had the zing and resolve to attract people to his party. As a result, he ran campaigns all over India, leading to the victory of his party, the Janata Party, in the General Elections in March 1977. He won the Surat seat in the Lok Sabha election. He was swiftly elected to lead the Janata Party in Parliament with unanimous support. He was sworn in as India's fourth Prime Minister on March 24, 1977, making him the first non-Congressman to do so. He was likewise the world's most seasoned individual to turn into a State leader at 81 years, a record which he holds till date.
After the war in 1962, his primary accomplishments as Prime Minister included enhancing relations with Pakistan and reestablishing political ties with China. Under his direction, the government overturned some of the laws passed during the Emergency and made it difficult for any subsequent government to impose an emergency. However, he was forced to resign for the office in 1979 after Chaudhary Charan Singh and Raj Narain withdrew from the Janata Party, so his time as Prime Minister was brief. Consequently, Desai left politics at the age of 83 on July 28, 1979, when he resigned from his position as Prime Minister. In the 1980 general election, he campaigned for the Janata Party, but he did not run for office.
Dispute over R&AW: When India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), was established in 1968, Desai viewed it as the praetorian guard of Indira Gandhi. He made a promise to end all R&AW activities when he became Prime Minister, which he did to some extent. The agency's operations and budget were significantly reduced. B. Raman, a well-known security analyst who was previously in charge of the Counter-Terrorism Division of R&AW, stated on one occasion that Desai had cautiously informed them Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq that he was aware of Islamabad's nuclear plans.
In addition to being a social worker and reformer, Morarji Desai was a true Gandhian who remained steadfast in his principles. He held the position of Chancellor at Gujarat Vidapith, Mahatma Gandhi's university. While he was Indian Prime Minister, he used to visit and stay at the university in October. He met with farmers in the Kaira district at Sardar Patel's request, which led to the creation of AMUL Cooperative Movement. He pulled out of the Public Distribution System, which caused rationing shops to lose money because sugar and oil were cheap on the market.
Morarji Desai passed away on April 10, 1995, at the age of 99, after retiring in Mumbai. He is remembered for his role as a legendary freedom fighter and his contribution to politics during his final years.
A brief biography of Morarji Desai: Morarji Desai was regarded as a man of principles who for decades stood firm in Indian politics. He was a Gandhian leader who bravely endured detention during Indira Gandhi's Emergency and the struggle for freedom.
Even though the Emergency stay was in a cozy guest house in Haryana, a man of 80 years old would have struggled to survive 19 months in isolation. However, Desai spent the time reading, writing, spinning khadi, and contemplating. Even English and Hindi were taught to his guards (Remembering Things Past: Ram Jethmalani's article "A Salute to Morarji Desai, the Odd Genius of Indian Politics" appeared in the Indian Express on May 14, 1995. Desai was informed by the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 5, 1976, that he would be released if he agreed to step down from active politics. The emissary was shown the door by Desai.
Morarji Desai, the man who became India's oldest prime minister at the age of 81, is defined by that one act.
A straightforward individual, Desai was born into a Gujarati family in 1896. After India's independence, he served as the finance minister for both Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. He became prime minister of the Janata Party's first non-Congress government in 1977.
However, the government did not last long; Desai's government left office in July 1979, after only 28 months. Through the 44th Amendment Act of 1978, the government was able to make a permanent change to the Constitution in this short time. This made it almost impossible to declare an emergency like Indira had done. In addition, the Janata government firmly halted inflation (with the able support of then-Finance Minister H.M. Patel) and established good relations with all of India's neighbors, including Pakistan. Both the judiciary and the bureaucracy had been devalued and trampled upon.
Morarji Desai was a supporter of free speech for the media and the cut and thrust of debate. He held frequent press conferences at which journalists were free to ask any questions they wanted. Desai did occasionally respond to a question with a counter-question, but this did not prevent him from providing appropriate responses. When asked once why he responded to questions with counter-questions, he responded, " "Why not?"
At his first press conference as prime minister, he described the primary goals of his administration, which included reducing inflation, amending the Constitution to undo the harm caused by the 42nd Amendment, and instilling a sense of fearlessness throughout the nation. "Ask any question, and I will not take it ill," Desai stated, "but you also do not take it ill when I say something that is not very pleasant."
Due to his support of auto-urine therapy and belief in the prohibition of alcohol, many people believe that Desai was a dry person. However, when you consider Desai's entire life, these peculiarities seem insignificant.
When it comes to sycophants, Morarji Desai may be quite abrupt and blunt. When a colleague told him of an arrangement that Indira Gandhi had evidently made an arrangement with an unfamiliar government. He quickly responded, "I know Indira." The daughter of Jawaharlalji would never do that. H.Y. Sharda Prasad's The Book I Won't Be Writing and Other Essays) Desai made a sincere effort to include technocrats at the Secretary level in the government. Manmohan Singh, economist Lovraj Kumar, and engineer Manuel Menezes were brought in by him. Sadly, this policy was abandoned later.
Despite leading a non-Congress administration, Desai was quite forthright about how much he admired Nehru. "Nehru was a true democrat and a worthy inheritor of Gandhi's mantle," he stated. He was a patriotic leader. He was aware of India. Interview published on February 2, 1986, in The Illustrated Weekly.
Desai was respected by almost every community and had no racial prejudice. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, a well-known singer who had moved to Pakistan, found the atmosphere there to be oppressive and desired to return to India. He was greeted upon his return and given a place to live in Mumbai by Desai, the then-chief minister of Bombay State.
Morarji Desai will always be remembered as a true patriot, an accomplished parliamentarian, and most importantly, as someone who was willing to risk his life to uphold communal harmony.
What took place?
Morarji Desai, India's sixth prime minister, was born in Gujarat on February 29, 1896.
You can learn about a significant figure in Indian history in today's issue of This Day in History for the numerous amendments his government made to the Indian Constitution during the emergency.
Morarji Desai was born in Bulsar, a district in Gujarat that is now known as Valsad.
He held the position of deputy collector for Godhra following his graduation from Wilson College, Bombay (now Mumbai). In 1930, he resigned from his position.
After that, he joined the Civil Disobedience Movement against British rule and joined the Indian freedom struggle.
During the struggle for freedom, Shri Desai was held in jail three times.
Political career of Morarji Desai: joined the All India Congress Committee in 1931.
1937: Appointed Revenue, Agriculture, Forest, and Cooperatives Minister.
In 1946, he became the Bombay State Minister of Home Affairs and Revenue. In 1952, he became the Bombay State Chief Minister.
1956: Appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry to the Union Cabinet.
1963 Resigned from the Cabinet of the Union.
1967 Under the Indira Gandhi government, served as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.
1969: Became a member of the Indian National Congress (INC), and 1975-77: Was held in jail during the Emergency.
1977: Became India's Prime Minister.
Morarji Desai as Finance Minister: Morarji Desai is the Finance Minister who has presented the most budgets thus far, with eight annual and two interim budgets.
Prime Minister Morarji Desai stated that the Janata Party won the general elections for the sixth Lok Sabha in March 1977. Desai won a seat in the Gujarati constituency of Surat in the Lok Sabha election. He was then sworn in as Prime Minister on March 24, 1977, after being unanimously elected as the leader of the Janata Party in Parliament. India's prime minister was Shri Desai from March 24, 1977, until July 28, 1979.
He was the first Prime Minister of India to not be a member of the Indian National Congress.
He was also the oldest person in history to become Prime Minister—he was 81 years old—a record he still holds today.
He called Indira Gandhi's rule tyrannical.
By hosting a visit from Jimmy Carter in 1978, he attempted to reposition India as a non-aligned nation in response to what he perceived as a relationship with the Soviet Union that was too close.
In June 1979, while he was in the Soviet Union, he said that India opposed the occupation of Afghanistan.
He improved relations with China, which had been strained since a 1962 border dispute.
He worked to strengthen ties with Pakistan, a neighbor and archrival.
"His government made it difficult for any subsequent government to impose a national emergency and undid many of the amendments made to the constitution during the emergency."
Frequently Asked Questions:-
What is Morarji Desai famous for?
Desai became India's first non-Congress Prime Minister after being elected. Desai is well-known all over the world for his peace activism and efforts to bring about peace between Pakistan and India, two rival South Asian states.
Who is India's PM with the longest tenure?
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, held office for the longest amount of time, 16 years and 286 days.
What has earned Morarji Desai fame?
Desai became India's first non-Congress Prime Minister after being elected. Desai is well-known all over the world for his peace activism and efforts to bring about peace between Pakistan and India, two rival South Asian states.
Who is India's youngest Prime Minister?
Rajiv Gandhi became the youngest Prime Minister of India. All over the world, attention was paid to this phenomenon. His charming demeanor, charming smile, and good nature were valuable personal assets.
Who is India's longest-serving PM?
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, held office for the longest amount of time, 16 years and 286 days.
In India, how do I become a CM?
The state legislative assembly elects the chief minister by majority vote. As suggested by the state governor, who is the appointing authority, this is procedurally established by the vote of confidence in the legislative assembly. Their term of office is five years.
Who is India's first lady prime minister?
Indira Gandhi was born Indira Nehru on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad, to a Kashmiri Pandit family.
What were Morarji Desai's special habits?
In 1978, Desai, a longtime practitioner of "urine therapy," discussed the advantages of drinking urine with Dan Rather on 60 Minutes. Additionally, he attributed his longevity to urinating.
Morarji Desai belonged to what party?
Image of Morarji Desai's political affiliation
The Janata Dal was an Indian political party that was formed on October 11, 1988, on Jayaprakash Narayan's birthday, when the Lok Dal, the Indian National Congress, and the Jan Morcha merged under V. P. Singh's leadership.
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