At the time of Chaudhary Charan Singh becoming PM, it was reported in the magazine named Himmat that Indira Gandhi wants mid-term elections and this will give her more benefit.
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In 1996, the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee fell in just 13 days, but before that there has been a Prime Minister who could sit on the PM’s chair only for 23 days. Chaudhary Charan Singh to make Prime Minister by supporting Indira Gandhi Withdrew support from him before proving majority in the House and the government fell. Singh, who resigned on 20 August 1979, remained the caretaker prime minister till January 1980 after the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.
Whenever there is talk of farmers’ interest in the country, then the Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh, is definitely mentioned. He was also called the messiah of the farmers. He is firm in the principles and principles. For the sake of his principles, he submitted the resignation of his 23-day government to President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy on August 21, 1979.
PM was made with the support of Congress (I)
Born on 23 December 1902, Chaudhary Charan Singh entered politics in 1929 and formed the Congress Committee in Ghaziabad. He was also imprisoned for six months for his activism in the Civil Disobedience Movement of Mahatma Gandhi. When he came out of jail, he then jumped into the freedom movement. In independent India, he was the Chief Minister of UP for two years. He also served as Home Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister from 1977 to 1979. And then the time came, when he took oath as the Prime Minister.
He was sworn in as the fifth Prime Minister of the country. Then Indira Gandhi’s Congress (I) supported her from outside. At the same time Yashwantrao Chavan of Congress (Socialist) party was made Deputy Prime Minister. However, just before she could prove her majority in the House, Indira Gandhi withdrew support. Singh had then clearly said that even if his government goes, he will not seek support from Indira Gandhi’s Congress. The story behind this is interesting.
…when Charan Singh got angry on the question of the journalist
Shanti Bhushan, who became the Law Minister in Morarji Desai’s cabinet, has written in his autobiography ‘Courting Destiny’, in 1978 it was common everywhere that Chaudhary Charan Singh was going to overthrow the government. In those days, Charan Singh, LK Advani, Pratap Chandra Chundra and he himself were members in a cabinet committee on electoral reforms. After the meeting of this committee, he writes an interesting anecdote that a journalist asked Singh if he was eager to become PM, then Singh got angry. He vented his anger on the journalist itself.
Singh said- What is the harm in wanting to become PM. Wouldn’t you like to be the editor of a good newspaper, otherwise your life is meaningless. However, he had clarified that he was not conspiring to remove Morarji Desai from his post.
Criticism took place when she took support from Indira
Charan Singh was also opposed to the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and wanted action from the government in this direction. When he became the Prime Minister with the support of Indira, against whom he contested the election, he was criticized a lot. He also had the support of socialist parties. It is written in the biography of Lalu Yadav that the Janata Party was broken. The first public experiment failed and this gave a setback to Jayaprakash Narayan’s dream. The man whom we opposed with all our heart and soul, Indira Gandhi and her party Congress returned to power in a dramatic way. Meanwhile, JP also passed away in October 1979.
..and then the government of Charan Singh fell
At the time of Chaudhary Charan Singh becoming PM, it was reported in the magazine named Himmat that Indira Gandhi wants mid-term elections and this will give her more benefit. With Charan Singh becoming the PM, he will get the benefit and Singh’s government may not last even two-three months. It happened exactly the same. Within a month the Congress (I) withdrew its support.
After the resignation, Chaudhary Charan Singh said that he did not want to be blackmailed with Indira Gandhi. According to him, Indira Gandhi has put a condition that the cases registered against her related to excesses during the Emergency should be withdrawn. I do not accept this condition and hence I am resigning from the post of PM. Chaudhary Charan Singh had said, “How can we remove cases against someone who is responsible for the oppression of people during the Emergency. If we do this to stay in power, then this country will never forgive us.”
When the general elections were held in 1980, Charan Singh got the biggest setback. The Janata Party and the Janata Party Secular were reduced to 41 and 31 seats respectively. At the same time, in just three years of the Emergency, the people of the country gave a bumper victory to the Congress with 351 seats.