45 Facts About Charan Singh

Chaudhary Charan Singh served as the 5th prime minister of India between 28 July 1979 and 14 January 1980.

Charan Singh was born on 23 December 1902 in a rural peasant family of the Teotia clan of village Noorpur, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.

Charan Singh entered politics as part of the Indian Independence Movement motivated by Mahatma Gandhi.

Charan Singh 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.

Charan Singh 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.

Charan Singh said he resigned because he was not ready to be blackmailed into withdrawing Indira Gandhi's emergency-related court cases.

Charan Singh continued to lead the Lok Dal in opposition until his death in 1987.

Charan Singh's ancestor was a prominent leader of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Raja Nahar Singh of Ballabhgarh.

Nahar Charan Singh was sent to the gallows in Chandni Chowk, Delhi.

Charan Singh was born on 23 December 1902 in the village of Noorpur in the Meerut district in the Rohilkhand region of the North-Western part of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh in British India into a rural peasant Hindu Jat family of the Teotia clan.

Charan Singh was a good student, and received a Master of Arts degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926 from Agra University.

Charan Singh started practice as a civil lawyer at Ghaziabad in 1928.

Charan Singh followed Mahatma Gandhi in non-violent struggle for independence from the British Government, and was imprisoned several times.

Charan Singh was jailed again for one year in November 1940 for individual Satyagraha movement.

Charan Singh opposed Jawaharlal Nehru on his Soviet-style economic reforms.

Charan Singh was of the opinion that cooperative farms would not succeed in India.

Charan Singh wanted to preserve and stabilize a system of peasant proprietorship.

Charan Singh left the Congress party in 1967, and formed his own political party, Bharatiya Kranti Dal.

Charan Singh had declared the state of emergency and jailed all her political opponents.

Charan Singh served as Deputy Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance minister in the Janata government headed by Morarji Desai.

Charan Singh wanted some of his allies like Jai Ram Varma and Udit Narain Sharma to be included in the cabinet and removal of some of the men from the cabinet.

Samyukta Socialist Party, one of the constituent of this coalition, demanded to completely abolish he land revenue or at least abolish on uneconomic lands but Charan Singh refused to accept this demand as he was worried about the revenue generation and resources.

Praja Socialist Party, another constituent in this coalition, demanded for the release of government employees held in preventive detention for their strikes but this demand Charan Singh refused to accept.

On 17 February 1968, Charan Singh submitted his resignation to the governor Bezawada Gopala Reddy and on 25 February 1968, President's rule was imposed on Uttar Pradesh.

On 18 February 1970, Charan Singh became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time with the help of Indira Gandhi's Congress.

Charan Singh demanded the resignation of 14 Congress minister but they refused to resign.

Just two weeks later with the recalling of the Uttar Pradesh assembly, Tribhuvan Narain Charan Singh was elected the leader of the house and became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh with the support of Congress, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Swatantra Party and Samyukta Socialist Party.

Charan Singh became Cabinet minister in Morarji Desai government and took the office as Minister of Home Affairs on 24 March 1977.

Charan Singh argued that these assemblies no longer represent the will of the electorate of their respective states.

Charan Singh wrote the letter to nine Chief Ministers to advise their governors to dissolve their state assemblies.

On 3 October 1977, Charan Singh got Indira Gandhi arrested from her 12 Willingdon Crescent residence.

On 1 July 1978, Charan Singh resigned from the cabinet of Morarji Desai because of growing differences between them over trial of Indira Gandhi.

In December 1978, Charan Singh wanted to undo Janata Party and wanted coalition government in place of Janata Party government.

On 24 January 1979, Charan Singh returned into cabinet and held two portfolios of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Charan Singh was asked to resign in June 1978 following disagreements with Desai, but was brought back to the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister in January 1979.

Charan Singh was appointed prime minister, by President Reddy, after Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi promised Charan Singh that Congress would support his government from outside on certain conditions.

Charan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister on 28 July 1979, with outside support from Indira Gandhi's Congress party and with Yeshwantrao Chavan of the Congress party as his Deputy Prime Minister.

Since Charan Singh refused to drop them, Congress withdrew its support just before Charan Singh was to confirm his majority in the Lok Sabha.

Charan Singh resigned as prime minister on 20 August 1979, after just 23 days in office, becoming the only Prime Minister never to obtain the confidence of Parliament.

Charan Singh then advised President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy to dissolve the Lok Sabha.

Janata Party leader Jagjivan Ram challenged that advice and sought time to cobble support, but the Lok Sabha was dissolved, and Charan Singh continued as caretaker Prime Minister until January 1980.

Charan Singh was elected president of Lok Dal and Raj Narain was elected as its working president.

On 21 October 1984, Charan Singh founded a new party Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party, by merging Lok Dal, Democratic Socialist Party of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, Rashtriya Congress of Ratubhai Adani and some leaders of Janata Party like Devi Lal.

Charan Singh had six children with wife Gayatri Devi.

Charan Singh is a 1996 short documentary film directed by Ashok Vazirani and produced by the Films Division of India which covers the life and achievements of the prime minister including his contributions to the Indian agriculture sector.