By Nandiraju Radhakrishna
Here is a man, who lived for 99 years but celebrated only 24 birtdays. He is Morarji Desai, the first Prime Minister from out of Nehru-Gandhi clade. He was born on February 29, 1896. He was honoured with India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, and he also received Pakistan’s highest civilian award ‘Nishan-e-Pakistan’.
Morarji Desai was the sixth Prime Minister of India. His political life moved around very interesting turns, being the longest serving politician in public life, he was victim of ‘Kamaraj Plan’, developed differences with Indira Gandhi, became Prime Minister of India at the age of 82. He never got along with the Nehru-Gandhi family. The distance widened when Indira Gandhi removed him from her first cabinet as Finance Minister.
He is the eldest person in Indian political history to take over the post of Prime Minister at the age of 81. He is a veteran who has experienced all political positions and resigned from them. In 1980, the responsibility of the Janata Party campaign was shouldered. He is reputed to be the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India. He breathed his last in 1995 at the age of 99.
Morarji bhai is a person of international fame for his peace activities with Pakistan and during his tenure, after India’s first nuclear test in 1974, his external affairs helped restore friendly relations with China and Pakistan. He was the man who made massive effort in avoiding Indo-Pakistani armed conflict in the year 1971.
Jawaharlal Nehru’s Secretary M.O. Mathai once went to see the Qutub Minar with a friend. Then his friend asked him what Morarji Desai was like. Mathai replied, “What is in front of you is an iron pillar. Put a Gandhi cap on it. Then you will see Morarji Desai. He is a humble and strong person both physically and mentally”. Another time: Nehru speaking to Mathai said Purushottama Das Tandon and Morarji Desai are the two most honest men we have in Indian politics. In fact, Nehru did not get along very well with Morarji in his last days. However, Nehru had a similar view. Both these comments tell about the personality of Morarji Desai.
He was born on 29 February 1896 in Bhadeli (now Valsad District), Bombay Presidency, British India, on 29 February 1896, the eldest of eight children, to Ramchodji Nagarji Desai (father, a teacher) and Vajiaben Desai, in a Gujarati Anavil Brahmin family. Morarji lost his father when he was 15 years old. After matriculation in Gujarat, joined Wilson College, Mumbai. Studied with a scholarship provided by Bhavnagar Institution. Passed out from Bombay University in 1917 and joined Bombay Provincial Civil Service as Deputy Collector in 1918.
He resigned from the post of Deputy Collector of Godhra in May 1930 after being accused of being lenient towards Hindus during the Godhra riots of 1927-28. Joined the freedom struggle under Mahatma Gandhi and participated in the civil disobedience movement against the British rule. In 1931, he was elected as the Secretary of Gujarat Provincial Congress. Later, when the regional elections were held in 1934 and 1937, Desai was elected and held the charge of Minister of Revenue, Agriculture, Forests and Home for the Bombay Presidency.
He became the Chief Minister of Bombay State in 1952 after independence later he was elected to the Lok Sabha from 1957 till he became the Prime Minister in 1977.
In 1963, he had to resign from the Union Cabinet due to the ‘Kamaraj Plan’. Growing up in the Congress, known as a staunch nationalist with an anti-corruption bent, Desai was at odds with Prime Minister Nehru and his allies. He was in race for Prime Minister position along with Indira Gandhi, but he could not get support of the party and shouldered the responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Department. However, he had to resign from the post of Deputy Prime Minister after developed differences of opinion with Indira Gandhi on various policy issues.
In 1969, when the Congress party split, Desai joined the Indian National Congress (organization). Indira Gandhi’s party won the general elections in 1971 with a huge majority. And after Emergency, Indira lost 1977 elections and JP’s Janata Party was elected and Morarji Desai become the Prime Minister of India.
During the JP movement, the small and big parties have united and formed Janata Party. Everyone put aside their ideologies and opinions and came together with one-point agenda. When various names including Jagjeevan Ram, Chaudhary Charan Singh and Morarji Desai came up for discussion about the post of Prime Minister Jayaprakash Narayan favored Morarji’s name. And he became the Prime Minister.
However, due to internal stifles in 1979, Morarji’s government fell due to several reasons like Charan Singh and Hemavati Nandan Bahuguna’s instigation by Congress and Madhu Limai’s dual membership (Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).
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