West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday remembered former Prime Minister Morarji Desai on his 23rd death anniversary.
Banerjee in a tweet said, “Solemnly remembering former Prime Minister Morarji Desai on his death anniversary”.
Solemnly remembering former Prime Minister Morarji Desai on his death anniversary
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 10, 2018
Morarji Desai was an Indian independence activist and served between 1977 and 1979 as the 4th Prime Minister of India and led the government formed by the Janata Party.
The popular anti-corruption movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan and the anti-Emergency wave in 1977 led to the complete routing of the Congress party in Northern India, and a landslide victory for the opposition Janata alliance in the National elections held in March 1977.
Morarji Desai was selected by the Janata alliance, later Janata Party as their parliamentary leader, and thus became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.
During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as: Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of India.
After India’s first nuclear explosion in 1974, Desai helped restore friendly relations with China and Pakistan, and vowed to avoid armed conflict such as Indo-Pakistani war of 1971.
He was also accused of scaling down the Indian covert operations agency, the R&AW.