Charan Singh
| 5th Prime Minister of India | |
|---|---|
| In office 28 July 1979 – 14 January 1980 |
|
| President | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy |
| Deputy | Yashwantrao Chavan |
| Preceded by | Morarji Desai |
| Succeeded by | Indira Gandhi |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 24 January 1979 – 28 July 1979 |
|
| Prime Minister | Morarji Desai |
| Preceded by | Haribhai Patel |
| Succeeded by | Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna |
| 3rd Deputy Prime Minister of India | |
| In office 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979 Serving with Jagjivan Ram |
|
| Prime Minister | Morarji Desai |
| Preceded by | Morarji Desai |
| Succeeded by | Yashwantrao Chavan |
| Minister of Home Affairs | |
| In office 24 March 1977 – 1 July 1978 |
|
| Prime Minister | Morarji Desai |
| Preceded by | Kasu Brahmananda Reddy |
| Succeeded by | Morarji Desai |
| Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh | |
| In office 3 April 1967 – 25 February 1968 |
|
| Governor | Biswanath Das Bezawada Gopala Reddy |
| Preceded by | Chandra Bhanu Gupta |
| Succeeded by | President’s rule |
| In office 18 February 1970 – 1 October 1970 |
|
| Governor | Bezawada Gopala Reddy |
| Preceded by | Chandra Bhanu Gupta |
| Succeeded by | President’s rule |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Chaudhary Charan Singh 23 December 1902 Noorpur, United Provinces, British India (now in Uttar Pradesh, India) |
| Died | 29 May 1987 (aged 84) New Delhi, India |
| Political party | Janata Party (Secular) (1979–1987) |
| Other political affiliations |
Indian National Congress(Before 1967) Bharatiya Lok Dal (1967–1977) Janata Party (1977–1979) |
| Spouse(s) | Gayatri Devi (died in 2002) |
| Children | Satya Wati, Ved Wati, Gyan Wati, Saroj Verma, Ajit Singh, Sharda Singh |
| Alma mater | Agra University |
Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, serving from 28 July 1979 until 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the ‘champion of India’s peasants.’
Charan Singh was born in a Jat family in 1902 in village Bhadola of Ghaziabad District in Uttar Pradesh Charan Singh entered politics as part of the Independence Movement motivated by Mohandas Gandhi. He was active from 1931 in the Ghaziabad District Arya Samaj as well as the Meerut District Indian National Congress for which he was jailed twice by the British. Before independence, as a member of Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces elected in 1937, he took a deep interest in the laws that were detrimental to the village economy and he slowly built his ideological and practical stand against the exploitation of tillers of the land by landlords.
Between 1952 and 1967, he was one of “three principal leaders in Congress state politics.” He became particularly notable in Uttar Pradesh from the 1950s for drafting and ensuring the passage of what were then the most revolutionary land reform laws in any state in India under the tutelage of the then Chief Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant; first as Parliamentary Secretary and then as Revenue Minister responsible for Land Reforms. He became visible on the national stage from 1959 when he publicly opposed the unquestioned leader and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s socialistic and collectivist land policies in the Nagpur Congress Session. Though his position in the faction-ridden UP Congress was weakened, this was a point when the middle peasant communities across castes in North India began looking up to him as their spokesperson and later as their unquestioned leader. Singh stood for tight government spending, enforced consequences for corrupt officers, and advocated a “firm hand in dealing with the demands of government employees for increased wages and dearness allowances.” It is also worth noting that within the factional UP Congress, his ability to articulate his clear policies and values made him stand out from his colleagues.
Following this period, Charan Singh defected from the Congress on April 1, 1967, joined the opposition party, and became the first non-Congress chief minister of UP. This was a period when non-Congress governments were a strong force in India from 1967-1971.
As leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal, a major constituent of the Janata coalition, he was disappointed in his ambition to become Prime Minister in 1977 by Jayaprakash Narayan’s choice of Morarji Desai, not to seek power for himself but to enable him implement his revolutionary economic programs in the interest of the rural economy. Unfortunately, few amongst his rural-based party members had the intellectual heft to fully comprehend his wide-ranging agenda to remake Indian society and economy, and this weakness dogged him his entire career specially in Delhi. Urban intellectuals were mostly beholden to either the communist / socialist models, or were neo-liberal and capitalist and hence looked askance at his uniquely Indian solution.
During 1977 Lok Sabha Elections, the fragmented opposition united a few months before the elections under the Janata Party banner, for which Chaudhary Charan Singh had been struggling almost single-handedly since 1974. It was because of the efforts of Raj Narainthat he became Prime Minister in the year 1979 though Raj Narain was Chairman of Janata Party-Secular and assured Charan Singh of elevating him as Prime Minister, the way he helped him to become Chief Minister in the year 1967 in Uttar Pradesh. However, he resigned after just 24 days in office since Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party withdrew support to the government. Charan Singh said he resigned because he was not ready to be blackmailed into withdrawing Indira Gandhi’s emergency-related court cases. Fresh elections were held six months later. Charan Singh continued to lead the Lok Dal in opposition till his death in 1987
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