The Ancient ports of India- History Updated......

 

BA HISTORY/ SEMESTER V/ CONTEMPORARY INDIA 

 JAWAHARLAL NEHRU

·         He was born in Allabahad on November 14, 1889. He was born into a family of Kashmiri Pandits, who had migrated to Delhi early in the 18^th century.His father was Motilal Nehru,

Cabinet mission and the interim government

·         A final attempt was made by the viceroy Wavell to bring the Congress Party and the Muslim League together, which failed. The Labour government that had meanwhile displaced Churchill’s wartime administration sent a Cabinet Mission to India and later replaced Lord Wavell with Lord Mountbatten.

·         1946: The Cabinet Mission was sent to India to propose a plan for the transfer of power. This led to elections to provincial assemblies, and members elected members of the constituent assembly. An interim government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. The Muslim league joined the government later with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance minister.

·         On August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan were partitioned as two separate independent countries.

 

Jawaharlal Nehru: The first Prime Minister of India

·         Jawaharlal Nehru took office as Prime Minister of independent India on 15^th august and his inaugural address is called ‘Tryst with Destiny’.

·         1947: Nehru declares that no princely state would exist in independent India and that they need to join the constituent assembly. He made Vallabhbai Patel and V.P Menon in charge of integrating the states, in which they were successful.

·         1950: The new Constitution of India came into force on 26^th January 1950 making India a sovereign democratic republic.

·         1952: The first elections under the new constitution of India were held. Congress Party under Nehru’s leadership won the elections and formed the first elected government of the Republic of India.

·         1952-57: Second Nehru Ministry at the Centre

·         Jawaharlal Nehru appointed the states reorganization commission in 1953 to organize states on a linguistic basis. This commission was headed by Justice Fazal Ali.

·         He advocated democratic socialism and encouraged India’s industrialization by implementing the first five-year plans. He attempted to push the development by undertaking both agrarian reforms and industrialization together.

·         1958-62: Third Nehru Ministry at the Centre

·         The Congress party won the 1957 and later 1962 elections as well. Nehru served as Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms that are for 17 years.

·         He annexed Goa into India from the Portuguese occupation in 1961 after years of failed negotiations. He was lauded and criticized for the use of force internally and externally.

·         The Sino-Indian War of 1962 was a troubled time under his last term as Prime Minister.

Nehru’s legacy

·         Nehru was popular among the citizens of India as well on a global level. His secular approach to politics contrasted with Gandhi’s religious and traditionalist attitude. Because of his modern political and economic outlook, he was able to attract the younger intellectual crowd of India to the independence movement against the British.

·         Nehru embarked India on modern lines while keeping in touch with traditional Indian aspects. He imparted modern values and ways of thinking, which he adapted to Indian conditions.

·         He stressed secularism and the basic unity of India, despite its ethnic and religious diversities. He was deeply concerned with carrying India forward into the modern age of scientific discovery and technological development.

·         Nehru wanted his people to have an awareness and social concern for the poor and the outcast and respect for democratic values.

·         He was particularly proud of the reform of the ancient Hindu civil code that finally enabled Hindu widows to enjoy equality with men in matters of inheritance and property.

·         The Kashmir problem remained a perennial throughout Nehru’s term as prime minister.

·         He had a great love for children and was fondly called Chacha Nehru. His birthday is celebrated as Children’s day in India.

·         He encouraged and advanced India’s education by establishing the top-tier institutions of India including the Indian Institute of Technology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India’s first Space Program, etc.

·         His former residence, the Trimurti Bhavan has been converted into a museum giving a glimpse of the former prime minister’s life.

·         International relations under Nehru

·         His most important contribution to geopolitics is considered the Non-alignment moment (NAM). India and a few other countries decided to not align with any superpower during the cold war era post World war II.

·         But Nehru’s popularity saw a decline when India was the only nonaligned country to vote with the Soviet Union on the invasion of Hungary in the United Nations. At last, the Sino-Indian war of 1962 forced Nehru to divert fully from the NAM to procure help from the western forces.

·         In 1954, Nehru signed the Five Principles of Coexistence with China known as Panchsheel in India. India recognized Chinese sovereignty over Tibet with this. Relations with China under Nehru’s leadership saw many ups and downs throughout.

LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI

BIRTH: 2^ND OCTOBER 1904.He was born to Sharada Prasad Srivastava and Ramdulari Devi in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh.

EDUCATION:

·         His early education was in Urdu at East Central Railway Inter College, Mughalsarai till sixth class

·         He then moved to Harish Chandra High School, Varanasi for further studies.

·         At this time he dropped his caste-derived surname Srivastava, in order with his view that the caste system is derogatory.

·         1925: He further completed his studies with a first-class degree in philosophy and ethics from The Kashi Vidyapeeth (which was inaugurated by Gandhi Ji in Benares in 1921).

·         He was given the title of ‘Shastri’ (scholar) as it was the norm in the institution after completion of a bachelor’s degree.

·         1928: He married Lalita Devi and later the couple had four sons and two daughters,

·         Lal Bahadur Shastri’s foray into the Freedom movement

·         His high school teacher Nishkameshawar Mishra’s patriotism inspired Shastriji to take interest in the freedom struggle.

·         1921: He started attending public meetings in Benares hosted by Gandhiji and Madan Mohan Malviya while in 10^th

·         Shastri withdrew from Harish Chandra High School to join Non-Cooperation Movement inspired by Gandhiji’s call for students to withdraw from government schools.

·         He joined the local branch of the congress party as a volunteer and actively took part in picketing and anti-govt demonstrations.

·         He was arrested and jailed but was let go as he was still a minor.

·         He later became a life member of the Lok Seva Mandal (The Servants Of The People Society) founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and began to work for the betterment of Harijans at Muzaffarpur.

·         He later became the President of the society.

·         Shastriji’s Political path:

·         1928: Joined Indian National Congress as an active member on the advice of Gandhiji

·         1929: He was appointed as Secretary of the Allahabad District Congress Committee.

·         1935: He was made the General Secretary of UP Pradeshik Congress Committee (PCC).

·         1937: He was elected to UP Legislative Assembly and became the organizing secretary of the parliamentary board of UP.

·         He served as an elected representative for United Provinces in 1937 and 1946.

·         1940: He supported the individual satyagraha movement and was sent to prison for 1 year because of this.

·         1942: He was released from jail but jumped back into the independence movement on the call for Quit India Movement by Gandhiji in Bombay. He travelled to Allahabad to organize the movement there.

·         The political journey of Lal Bahadur Shastri post-independence

·         1947: Shastri was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary in Uttar Pradesh.

·         He later became the Minister of Police and Transport under Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant in 1947.

·         He appointed women conductors for the first time.

·         1951: He was made the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister.

·         1952: He won the UP Vidhansabha seat from Saraon North and Phulpur West and was supposed to be retained as Home Minister of UP.

·         But he was rather called by Nehru to the centre as Minister of Railways and Transport in the first cabinet of the Republic of India.

·         1956: He resigned after a couple of railway accidents that killed 144 people in Tamil Nadu; he believed he was responsible as the topmost authority.

·         1959: He was called back as Minister of Commerce And Industry.

·         1961: He was made the Minister of Home Affairs.

·         Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (1964-66):

·         1964: Jawaharlal Nehru died in May 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri became the second Prime Minister of the Republic of India, under President Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.

·         He handled the portfolios of external affairs and atomic energy initially but later transferred external affairs to Swaran Singh.

·         He retained the main ministers of the Nehru cabinet and also included Indira Gandhi as information and broadcasting minister.

·         Shastri was the first Prime Minister to have a secretary, a senior ICS officer to advise him. He thus laid the foundation of what later became the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

·         1964: He gave India the White Revolution by supporting the Amul Milk Cooperative of Anand, Gujarat.

·         1965: He established National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Anand.

·         1965: He set in motion the start of the Green Revolution to fight the growing food crisis in the country.

·         January 1965- The Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) was set up.

·         Food Corporation of India (FCI) came into being.

·         National seeds corporation was set up

·         Central warehousing corporation came up.

·         India’s foreign relations during Shastri Ji’s tenure:

·         Lal Bahadur Shastri’s tenure was marked by many important events like the Indo-Ceylon Agreement, the Deportation of Indian families from Burma, and the Indo-Pak war of 1965.

·         Indo-Ceylon Agreement/ Bhandarnaike-Shastri Pact:

·         It was an agreement signed between the Prime Ministers of both countries in 1964.

·         The agreement was significant in determining the status and future of people of Indian origin in Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) who were successor generations of the tea estate labourers British had taken there.

·         Burma

·         Burma had deported several Indian families in 1964 after a military coup in 1962; this caused a strain in relations between India and Burma.

·         Shastriji made an official visit to Rangoon in 1965 and cordial relations were again established between the countries.

Indo-Pak war of 1965:

·         Also known as the Second Kashmir war was the culmination of numerous skirmishes between India and Pakistan in 1965.

·         The conflict began with Pakistan’s operation Gibraltar to infiltrate forces to Jammu and Kashmir,

·         Even though a strict follower of Gandhiji’s principle of non-violence, Shastriji led India in the war courageously.

·         He addressed the nation by giving the slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”– a tribute to the farmers fighting the food crisis and soldiers fighting at the border.

·         The hostilities came to end after a ceasefire was declared through UNSC resolution 211 by the diplomatic intervention of the Soviet Union and the United States, leading to the Tashkent declaration.

·         The death of Lal Bahadur Shastri

·         11^th January 1966: Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (then the Soviet Union) – one day after signing the peace treaty to end the 1965 war.

·         The official reason for his death has been given as heart attack- the controversial circumstances such as the fact that a prime minister of the country was not attended by a doctor on time has led to numerous speculations.

·         Many controversies are surrounding his death, but all the documents of investigations conducted are classified to date.

·         Most of the doubts are generated due to the fact was Shastriji was not a Prime Minister who could be controlled by the Soviet Union or western powers.

·         1977: Raj Narain committee was constituted to look into the mysterious death of Shastriji by the Janata Party government.

·         The committee’s investigation was also riddled with mysterious happenings as two crucial witnesses- Shastriji’s physician, Dr RN Chugh, and personal servant, Ram Nath, were killed in accidents en route to their statement recording before the committee.

·         The report of the committee was never made public and many petitions have been filed to declassify them.

·         The central information commission has directed PMO, home, and external affairs ministries to make the records public.

·         Shastriji’s resting place is called the Vijay Ghat situated in Delhi.

·         A book by M.L Verma, ‘Lalita ke Aansoo’ was published in 1978, in which the tragic story of his death is narrated by his wife Lalita Devi.

·         Legacy of Shastri Ji

·         Lal Bahadur Shastri was in true terms the most honest prime minister and politician of India.

·         Despite being a minister he did not amass any wealth and was a true believer of Gandhian philosophy to not accumulate any wealth and personal belongings.

·         He was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna in 1966 and a stamp featuring him was also released the same year.

·         He was nicknamed “The man of peace” as he always preferred maintaining cordial relations with the neighbours through peaceful means.

·         The IAS training institute in Mussoorie is named in honour of him- Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA).

INDIRA GANDHI

Early Life of Indira Gandhi

• Indira Gandhi was born into a Kashmiri Pandit family on November 19, 1917. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, and Kamala Nehru. She was actively involved in the freedom struggle from childhood. As a child, she founded the children’s ‘Bal Charkha Sangh’ and the ‘Vanar Sena’ to support the Congress party during the non-cooperation movement.
• She did her early schooling at Modern School Delhi, the International School of Geneva, and higher studies at the University of Oxford. Owing to her excellent academic background, she received the Citation of Distinction from Columbia University.
• She married Feroze Gandhi in 1942, and the couple had two children, Sanjay and Rajiv.

Indian National Congress

• In 1955, Indira Gandhi became a Working Committee member of the Congress party. She assisted Jawaharlal Nehru during his Prime Ministership and became the President of the Indian National Congress in 1959.
• After the demise of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi got elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha and the Information and Broadcasting Minister of the Lal Bahadur Shastri government.
• After the unexpected demise of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi was elected the leader of the Congress party.
• Amidst continued challenges within the right-wing section of the party, led by Moraji Desai, she defeated him and became the Prime Minister of India. In the initial phase of her tenure, she received criticism for being a mere puppet in the hands of senior leaders of the party.
• In the 1967 elections, Indira was elected from the Rae Bareli constituency. However, rising tensions within the party culminated in her removal from the party. She managed to retain the majority of Congress MPs by her side and formed a separate faction called the “New Congress”.

·         Read about the Establishment of the Indian National Congress from the linked article.

Nationalisation of Banks

• On July 19, 1969, Indira Gandhi announced the Nationalisation of 14 commercial banks in India. She implemented Nationalisation, based on the Banking Regulation Act of 1949. This crucial economic policy decision was implemented as the initial step in adopting a socialist pattern in the Indian Economy.
• Another important reason for this decision, which altered the banking sector in India, was the inaccessibility of banking services and credit facilities to the farmers of India and the rural population.
• The poor fiscal condition of India after wars with Pakistan and China, droughts, and lack of public investment also lead to the nationalisation of banks. The banks that were nationalised in 1969 included:

·         Allahabad Bank

·         Bank of India

·         Bank of Maharashtra

·         Central Bank of India

·         Dena Bank

·         Indian Overseas Bank

·         Syndicate Bank,

·         Punjab National Bank,

·         UCO Bank

·         Union Bank,

·         United Bank of India

·         Canara Bank

·         Indian Bank

·         Bank of Baroda

• The advantages of bank nationalisation were;

·         It promoted priority sector lending

·         Reduced regional inequalities and access to banking facilities

·         Reduced poverty in rural areas and aided the green revolution.

 

Abolition of Privy Purse

• The rulers of the Princely states received payments of ‘privy purse’ under Art.291 and Art.362 of the Indian Constitution. According to Indira Gandhi, the ‘privy purse’ violated equal rights for citizens of India. According to her, it was also necessary to reduce the revenue deficit of the government.
• In 1971, the 26th amendment of the Indian Constitution abolished Privy Purse. Articles 291 and 362 got removed from the constitution. Thus, the special privileges and entitlements enjoyed by rulers that were totally against the ideals of equality and social justice came to an end.

Garibi Hatao

• The political opponents of Indira Gandhi campaigned against her with the slogan “Indira Hatao”.She reverted with “Garibi Hatao”, or removal of poverty. It was a part of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, which stressed poverty alleviation, generation of employment opportunities, and increasing agricultural production.
• Garibi Hatao has been the central theme of election campaigns by Indira Gandhi and helped her reach out to poor and disadvantaged sections. The Indian National Congress supervised the programme, and the Central government provided funding for the same.

Bangladesh Liberation War

• Indira Gandhi took a firm stand and stood with the people of Bangladesh during the Liberation War. She let the refugees from East Pakistan take shelter in India. She extended financial aid, diplomatic assistance, and military support to the people of East Pakistan on 27th March 1971.
• The India-Pakistan war started with the Pakistani attack on an Indian Air station. However, the war ended with the victory of India over Pakistan in 1971. Her pivotal role in the formation of Bangladesh as an Independent nation and success in the India-Pakistan war gained huge popularity.

State of Emergency

• In 1975, Allahabad High Court declared the 1971 elections void on the grounds of dishonest election practices, including immoderate spending for elections, and illegal usage of Government machinery and officials for election campaigns. The Supreme Court of India banned Indira Gandhi from holding any government office for 6 years and took away her parliamentary position.
• The then President of India, Fakruddin Ali Ahmad, on the recommendation of Indira Gandhi and her cabinet, declared an Emergency in India. The chaos and disorder, following the Allahabad Court Judgement, were quoted as the reason for the same. Thus, according to article 352 of the Indian Constitution, an Emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975.
• Apart from that, strict censorship was imposed on the media by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Police imposed curfews and incarcerated citizens. States ruled by opposition parties were under the President’s rule. Leaders of opposition parties were arrested, electricity got disconnected, public protests and agitations were banned, and compulsory sterilisation was imposed on the population. After a period of 21 months, the government withdrew the Emergency on March 21, 1977.
• In the 1977 elections, the Congress party under Indira Gandhi got defeated by the Janata Alliance in opposition. Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi faced defeat in their respective constituencies. In November 1978, Indira Gandhi won the by-elections from the Chikmanglur constituency. However, Chaudhary Charan Singh ordered the arrest of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi on various grounds.
• In the 1980 elections, the Congress party secured a landslide victory, and Indira Gandhi got reelected to power. She got elected from the Medak constituency in Telangana. In 1980, post the death of her son, Sanjay Gandhi, she nationalised his car company, Maruti Udyog. She revived the company with the partnership of Suzuki in Japan and launched the first Indian-manufactured car in 1984.

Twenty-Point Programme

• The Twenty Point Programme was launched by Indira Gandhi in 1975, with the intent to eradicate poverty and improve the quality of life of underprivileged sections in the country. The objectives of the programme were aligned with United Nations Millennium Development Goals and National Common Minimum Programme. After its launch, the programme was restructured in 1982 and 1986. Finally, it was reintroduced in 2006 with the inclusion of new schemes and programmes.
• The programme comprises different aspects of socio-economic development, including education, health, agriculture, irrigation, drinking water, environment, etc. Some of the important points of this programme were:
• Poverty eradication
• Support to farmers
• Food Security
• Farmer Welfare
• Clean drinking water
• The welfare of Women
• Youth Development
• Environmental Protection
• Child Welfare

·         10. Social Security

• The programme has been implemented by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Operation Blue Star

• Conducted by the Indian Army in June 1984, Operation Bluestar targeted Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, an orthodox Sikh, and member of the Akali Dal party. He demanded the creation of a sovereign state or ‘Khalistan’ for Sikhs. After joining Akali Dal, he organised campaigns for the implementation of the Anandpur Resolution.
• In 1982, Bhindranwale and a few supporters entered the Guru Nanak Niwas near the Golden temple. In 1983, the temple complex got surrounded by militants, and the Punjab Deputy Commissioner was shot dead in the temple complex.
• After negotiations, Indira Gandhi permitted the Indian Army to enter the Golden Temple and remove the militants, including Bhindranwale. The operation involved the usage of heavy artillery-like tanks and caused severe damage to the temple complex. Several innocent pilgrims and Sikh fighters were dead in the operation. However, Indira Gandhi received fierce criticism from the Sikh community and political opponents. Sikh mutinies were organised by Sikh soldiers after the operation.

·         Assassination

• Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards, namely Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, on October 31, 1984. This place in New Delhi, where she got cremated, is known as ‘Shakti Sthal’. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, succeeded her as the Prime Minister of India.

Awards and achievements

• She has had many accomplishments. She won the Bharat Ratna Award in 1972, the Mexican Academy Award for her initiatives in the Liberation of Bangladesh in 1972, the FAO 2nd Annual Medal (1973), and the Sahitya Vachaspati Nagari Pracharini Sabha in 1976.
• Gandhi also received the 1953 Mother’s Award (US), Italy’s Isabella d’Este Award for her achievements in diplomacy), and Yale University’s Howland Memorial Award. For two years in a row, in 1967 and 1968, she was the most admired woman in France, according to polls by the French polling agency.
• According to a special Gallup poll conducted in the United States in 1971, she was the most admired person in the world. In 1971, she was awarded her honorary diploma by the Argentine Animal Conservation Society for animal protection.

Popular Publications

·         Popular publications of Indira Gandhi include;

• ‘The Years of Challenge’ (1966-69)
• ‘The Years of Endeavour’ (1969-72)
• ‘India’ (London) in 1975
• ‘Inde’ (Lausanne) in 1979

MORARJI DESAI

• He was the 4^th Prime Minister (1977-79) and the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.

Early Life:

• Shri Morarji Desai was born on 29^th February, 1896 in Bhadeli village, now in the Bulsar district of Gujarat.
• After graduating in 1918 from the Wilson Civil Service in Bombay, he served as a Deputy Collector for twelve years.

Contribution in Freedom Struggle:

• Joined Congress:
  
  
• In 1930, when India was in the midst of the Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi, Shri Desai, having lost his confidence in the British sense of justice, decided to resign from Government service and to plunge into the struggle.
• Shri Desai was imprisoned thrice during the freedom struggle. He became a Member of the All India Congress Committee in 1931 and was Secretary of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee until 1937.
• Participation In Individual Satyagraha:
• He was detained in the individual Satyagraha launched by Mahatma Gandhi, released in October, 1941 and detained again in August, 1942 at the time of the Quit India Movement.

Political Career:

• In 1952, he became the Chief Minister of Bombay.
• He joined the Union Cabinet as Minister for Commerce and Industry in November, 1956. Later, he took the Finance portfolio in March, 1958.
• In 1963, he resigned from the Union Cabinet under the Kamraj Plan. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, who succeeded Pt. Nehru, as Prime Minister, persuaded him to become Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission for restructuring the administrative system.
  
  
• According to Kamaraj Plan, it was proposed that all senior Congress leaders should resign from their posts and devote all their energy to the revitalization of the Congress.
• Desai was arrested and detained on 26^th June, 1975, when Emergency was declared. He went on an indefinite hunger strike to support the Nav Nirman movement of Gujarat.
  
  
• Nav Nirman Andolan was a socio-political movement in 1974 in Gujarat by students and middle-class people against economic crisis and corruption in public life.
• He was later unanimously elected as Leader of the Janata Party in Parliament and was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India on 24^th March, 1977.

His Ideology:

• Against Inequality: According to him, unless the poor and the under privileged living in villages and towns enjoy a decent standard of life, the talk of socialism will not have much meaning. Shri Desai gave concrete expression to his anxiety by enacting progressive legislation to ameliorate the hardships of peasants and tenants.
• Supported Austerity: Shri Desai translated into action what he had professed in matters of economic planning and fiscal administration. In order to meet the needs of defense and development, he raised large revenues, reduced wasteful expenditure and promoted austerity in Government expenditure on administration. He kept deficit financing very low by enforcing financial discipline. He brought curbs on extravagant living of the privileged section of society.
• Rule of Law: As Prime Minister, Shri Desai was keen that the people of India must be helped to become fearless to an extent where even if the highest in the land commits a wrong, the humblest should be able to point it out to him. “No one, not even the Prime Minister”, he was repeatedly said, should be above the law of the land”.
• Strict Disciplinarian: For him, truth was an article of faith and not an expediency. He seldom allowed his principles to be subordinated to the exigencies of the situation.

 

V P SINGH GOVERNMENT (1989-1990)

• Rajiv Gandhi could not get the chance for a second term in the 1989 elections due to the corruption allegations he faced.
• After the 1989 elections, V.P. Singh emerged as the leader of the loosely knit Janata Dal alliance with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose extreme wings were essentially antithetical to each other. Singh had previously denied any ambition in becoming Prime Minister.

V P Singh Government - Major Incidents

·         Tried to negotiate with Sikhs

• V.P. Singh's first visit as prime minister was to Amritsar's Golden Temple, where he walked barefoot to declare that he wished to offer a "healing touch" to Punjab's divided state.
• The Prime Minister pledged a political solution to the region's issues, but the move in Amritsar was not followed up by the transfer of Chandigarh, nor by any state elections, demonstrating the ambivalence in his new alliance.

Kashmir Insurgency and opposition in the Party itself

• The kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed in Jammu and Kashmir on December 8, 1989, was carried out by members of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, a Kashmiri militant separatist organization.
• Rubaiya was the daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the Congress government's Home Minister at the time.
• When Devi Lal, the Deputy Prime Minister, organized rallies in Delhi to demonstrate his mass support, V P Singh's cabinet was also disrupted.
• V.P. Singh took this as a challenge and pushed him to quit, threatening him with dismissal if he didn't.

Problems at Ayodhya

• Most members of L K Advani's BJP, as well as many other Hindus across India, supported a mass march of Hindus carrying consecrated bricks to construct "Rama's birth temple" in the fall of 1990.
• V.P. Singh and his administration, on the other hand, were devoted to India as a secular nation and would not allow the mosque to be desecrated, since it was one of Muslims' oldest and most precious sites.
• More than a million Hindus are marching toward Ayodhya, and India's police have been told to stop them. It triggered dissatisfaction with BJP.

Acceptance of the Mandal Commission's recommendations

• V.P. Singh expressed his support for the Mandal Commission recommendations, which advocated for caste-based reservations in government posts, on Independence Day.
• When the Janata Government was in power in the late 1970s, it formed the Mandal Commission, which gave its findings when Indira Gandhi was in charge.
• The proposals have been forwarded to the state governments for comment. The Mandal Commission's recommendations were accepted, resulting in major unrest in Delhi and other areas of the country.
• His new platform for public support was to be the Mandal Commission recommendations. However, after the BJP lost its support in Parliament, he was forced to quit as Prime Minister.

·         Thus, due to the withdrawal of support by the BJP, the V P Singh Government resigned on November 10, 1990.

RAJIV GANDHI GOVERNMENT (1984 - 1989)

• Rajiv Gandhi entered politics in 1981, addressing a national farmer’s rally in Delhi, and became a Member of Parliament the same year.
• The assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on 31st October 1984, triggered violent riots against the Sikh community.
• The then President Zail Singh appointed Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister by ignoring the precedent of appointing a caretaker Prime Minister.
• Rajiv Gandhi requested that President Zail Singh dissolve Parliament and call new elections since the Lok Sabha's five-year tenure had come to an end.
• He earned a landslide win and became India's youngest Prime Minister when he assumed office on December 31, 1984, at the age of 40.
• Rajiv Gandhi's initiatives and changes as Prime Minister enlarged the current economic paradigm, which was based on the Soviet Union's 'Protectionist government' principles.
• He enacted measures that decreased taxes on the technology sector and changed import rules in the telecommunications, defence, and commercial aircraft industries. His programs intended to modernize sectors in order to attract more foreign capital into the economy.
• He was opposed to traditional socialism and wanted to strengthen bilateral ties with the United States of America by developing economic and scientific collaboration. The emphasis on economic liberalization and information technology in his resurrected foreign policy drew India closer to the west.

Information Technology & Telecommunications in India

• Rajiv Gandhi is typically credited with introducing telecommunications to India, but a strategy implemented by Indira Gandhi weeks before her death gave India a head start in software exports.
• The policy allowing for exports via satellite links was agreed by Indira Gandhi's cabinet in 1984, but it was publicized by Rajiv Gandhi's administration on November 18, 1984.
• Rajiv Gandhi, together with Sam Pitroda, India's Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations Advisor, is in charge of the country's international and domestic telecommunications strategies.
• Pitroda led six technological missions for Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987, including telecommunications, water, literacy, vaccination, dairy, and oilseeds.
• Software professionals were not recognized as entrepreneurs prior to the 1984 IT policy, and software was not considered a company. This rendered workers in this industry ineligible for bank loans, leaving them without the necessary funds to establish a business.
• Pitroda started the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), which is a government-owned telecommunications technology development center, in 1984.
• The government of India established the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) in 1986 to handle the telephone services of Delhi and Mumbai.and the Videsh Sanchar Network Limited (VSNL) was founded in the same year to cater to international communication services.

Anti - Defection Laws (52nd Amendment)

• In 1985, India's government, led by Rajiv Gandhi, proposed the 52nd Amendment to the Constitution, which included the Anti-Defection Law, which is found in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
• Indira Gandhi submitted a bill to modify the constitution to prevent defection in May 1973, but it was overtaken by the emergency and buried.
• When the amended bill was passed, the opposition walked out of Parliament. It advocated putting a stop to India's 35-year-long parliamentary anarchism by making floor-crossing nearly difficult.
• Members of either the House of Commons or the state legislature would lose their membership if they resigned from the party from which they were chosen, abstained from voting or voted against their own party, or were ejected from the party by the party itself.
• The decision was prompted by internal dissension within the Congress party, which saw party members openly mutiny against the leadership.

Expansion of National Policy for Education (NPE)

• The National Policy for Education (NPE) is a government of India policy aimed at promoting education among Indian citizens.
• The strategy aims to provide education in both rural and urban India, from elementary school through university and college levels.
• Indira Gandhi's administration presented the First NPE in 1968, calling for "radical reorganization" of the education system, as well as equalization of educational possibilities, in order to achieve national cohesion and increased cultural and economic growth.
• The Rajiv Gandhi government announced a new NPE in May 1986. Special focus will be placed on eliminating inequities and equalizing educational opportunities, particularly for women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), and Scheduled Tribes (STs) populations, under this strategy.
• Operation Blackboard- It is a government-sponsored programme that began in 1987, following the introduction of the revised NPE of 1986 by the Rajiv Gandhi government. The objective of the scheme is to provide primary level students with the necessary institutional equipment and instructional material to facilitate their education. There is a provision to provide a salary for an additional teacher to primary schools that have an enrolment of more than a hundred students.
• Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)- It is a national government-designated university in New Delhi's Maidan Garhi neighborhood. The University was founded in 1985 by the Indian government under Rajiv Gandhi, with a budget of Rs. 20 lakhs. The Indira Gandhi National Open University Act of 1985 was enacted by the Indian Parliament, and the university was established.

Improving ties with the USA

• Rajiv Gandhi was inclined towards developing military ties with the USA and showed that he could move India’s foreign policy in new and innovative directions.

Maldives Coup D’Etat

• Several coup attempts were organized against Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's administration in the Republic of Maldives throughout the 1980s.
• The first two attempts, in 1980 and 1983, were dismissed as ineffective. In 1988, Abdulla Luthufi attempted a third attempt to topple Gayoom's administration, including armed mercenaries from the People's Liberation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), a Tamil separatist organization from Sri Lanka.
• Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ordered 1,600 paratroopers to Male right away to restore order.
• The operation began on the night of November 3, 1988, when components of the 50th Independent Parachute Brigade were airlifted by the Indian Air Force's Illyushin II-76 aircraft.
• After securing the airstrip and crossing to Male on seized boats, President Gayoom was rescued by the Indian Army. Within hours, President Gayoom's administration was restored to order.
• The coup d'etat attempt in the Island country was foiled thanks to quick military action and excellent intelligence information.

Intervention in Sri Lankan Civil War

• Following the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, there was a rise of organized Tamil opposition in Sri Lanka. In 1976, the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) rose to prominence and, among other things, became the major fighting faction.
• The situation in Sri Lanka worsened as their control over the tigers waned and the government of Sri Lanka essentially imposed an embargo on Tamil-dominated areas.\
• This resulted in a dearth of food and supplies, to the point that Rajiv Gandhi caved into domestic Tamil pressure and supplied relief to the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
• On Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's orders, food and supplies were dropped in certain areas. Rajiv Gandhi and then Sri Lankan President Jayawardene signed the Indo-SL Accord, which came as a shock to everyone.
• It included an agreement to send in a peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka to help control the situation and protect the peace.
• Rajiv Gandhi then dispatched the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to ostensibly disarm the Tigers, but they refused due to a variety of political factors.
• LTTE retaliated on Indian para-commandos, thereby murdering them. This spurred India to use force to disarm the Tigers. Many human rights crimes against the Peace Keeping Force occurred as a result of major engagements and back-and-forth exchanges between the IPKF and the LTTE. India soon withdrew from the island country as a result of it.
• The events of this civil war culminated in Rajiv Gandhi's death on May 21, 1991, while campaigning for the Lok Sabha Congress candidate in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

Drawbacks And Issues During The Rajiv Gandhi Government

• The most serious flaw is his disrespect for the Indian people. It's all due to his foolish faith in the political wisdom of individuals on his staff who he regarded to be seasoned politicians.
• The tactic of appeasing Muslim extremists first and subsequently Hindu fundamentalists in this order displayed callous disrespect for the people and their intelligence.
• With the Shah Bano amendment, he appeased Muslim extremists by denying divorced Muslim women the same right to maintenance as any other divorced Indian women.
• He appeased Hindu zealots by allowing the foundation stone for a Ram temple to be laid outside the barred gates of Ayodhya.
• His inclination to perceive individuals as objects of progress rather than subjects, the driving force, was a related failing. As a result, Rajiv Gandhi has put his faith in technological missions to achieve well defined development objectives. The reliance on technocrats has a major flaw as a corollary: the political party's incapacity to act as a change agent.
• Pocket Veto by President: President Zail Singh instituted "pocket veto" in India when he sat on the contentious Postal Bill in 1986. Even though the Rajiv Gandhi government made every effort to get the bill implemented, opposition leaders urged Zail Singh to refuse to sign it.
• Bofors Scandal- The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and several other members of the Indian and Swedish governments who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB, an arms manufacturer principally financed by the Wallenberg family's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, for winning a bid to supply to India their 155 mm field howitzer.

Conclusion

• Rajiv Gandhi was India's youngest Prime Minister, and while his administration brought the country into the digital era, it was marked by controversies. Many people questioned the Congress government's intentions and motives after events like the Bhopal disaster and the Shah Bano Case. Perhaps the largest incident that damaged Rajiv Gandhi's clean and free image was the Bofors scandal.
• Rajiv Gandhi, on the other hand, is credited with fortifying India's connections with the United States at a time when the latter was sceptical of Indira Gandhi's socialist policies in India. He was also in charge of building the groundwork for India's telecommunications and information technology infrastructure.

 

P V NARASIMHA RAO – 9^TH PRIME MINISTER

 

·         Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao took oath as India’s 9^th Prime Minister on 21 June 1991. Rao was the first Prime Minister from the non-Hindi belt and the first person from a southern state to adorn the post. His tenure saw impactful economic reforms like the shift from Nehruvian socialism to liberalisation.

·         Important Facts about P V Narasimha Rao

• On 28th June 2020, the 99th year of P V Narasimha Rao’s birth was celebrated. P V Narasimha Rao’s centenary celebration was in the news.
• His term as the Prime Minister of India was 1991-1996.
• He was born to a farmer’s family in Lanepalli (Telangana’s Warangal District.)
• His parents were Sitarama Rao and Rukminamma.
• He was a pioneer of all rural economies and rural welfare.
• The sectors where he made initiatives to bring development are (but not limited to):
• Clean Water
•  Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas
• Primary health care
• Primary Education sector
• Empowerment of Artisans
• Animal Husbandry and Poultry
• Small Industries
• Khadi and Village Industries
• Textiles, etc.
• In his tenure, the fund to implement schemes for rural development was increased to Rs.30000 crores in the 8th Five Year Plan, from Rs. 7000 crore in Seventh Five Year Plan.
• During his tenure, the foreign exchange had increased 15 fold in 1996. It was Rs. 3000 crores in 1991.
• With his economic reforms, the GDP hovered around 7-7.5 percent.
• He is also called as the pioneer of inclusive growth. (Learn about the economic planning of India in the linked article.)

Journey of P V Narasimha Rao

• He finished part of his schooling at Karimnagar and then completed his BA in Arts from Osmania University. After that, he secured a Master’s in Law degree from Hislop College in Nagpur.
• Rao took part in the freedom struggle and was part of the Vande Mataram movement in Hyderabad State.
• In the 1940s, he co-edited and contributed articles to a Telugu weekly journal called Kakatiya Patrika.
• He joined the Indian National Congress (Formed on 28th Dec 1885) and entered politics full-time after independence.
• He became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1971 and remained in office till 1973. His CM tenure was marked by a stringent implementation of the land ceilings act in the Telangana region.
• Rao was well-versed in several languages and could speak 17 languages. He was fluent in many Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Kannada and Urdu, apart from his native tongue Telugu. He could also speak many foreign languages like German, French, Arabic, Persian and Spanish.
• He rose to national prominence when he became the External Affairs Minister in 1980 under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi. He was the external affairs minister for four years and then again from 1988 to 1989 under Rajiv Gandhi. He was also the Defence Minister under Rajiv Gandhi.
• After a near-retirement from politics in 1991, Rao made a comeback after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991. In the elections that followed, the Congress Party could lead a minority government and Rao was selected as the PM. He got elected in a by-election from Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. This win entered the Guinness Book for the victory margin (of 5 lakh votes).
• He was the first person from the non-Hindi belt to become India’s PM. When he completed his five-year term, he became the first person outside of the Nehru-Gandhi family to do so as the PM.
• Rao’s tenure as PM is most remembered for the major economic reforms that were undertaken. The country decided to open up the economy and move towards a market economy as opposed to the socialism of the previous decades.
• The dreaded License Raj was dismantled by Rao and his team. The finance minister was Manmohan Singh, whose non-political lineage caused a flutter when he was appointed by Rao. He opened up to foreign investment, deregulated domestic business, and reformed the capital markets and the trade regime.
• In 1992, his government abolished the Controller of Capital Issues (that decided how many shares firms could issue at what prices).
• He introduced the SEBI Act and Global Depository Receipts (GDRs – which allowed Indian firms to raise capital on foreign markets).
• His government also started the National Stock Exchange (NSE), reduced tariffs and increased FDI limit to 51%. Certain sectors also permitted 100% foreign equity.
• From $132 million in 1991-92, the total foreign investment in the country rose to $5.3 billion in 1995-96.
• Industrial licensing was drastically reduced and rationalised.
• Rao supported and nurtured the nuclear security and missiles program of the country. The 1998 Pokhran tests of 1998 (carried out by the Vajpayee government) were actually planned under Rao’s term itself, it is speculated.  (Learn about Pokhran-II in the linked article.)
• The occupation of the Hazratbal Shrine in Jammu & Kashmir was brought to an end without damaging the shrine.
• Rao started India’s Look East Policy as part of foreign relations with South East Asia.
• The Babri Masjid demolition, the 1993 Bombay blasts, the Latur earthquake and the Purulia arms drop case took place during his tenure.
• Rao pushed for the ‘cultivate Iran’ policy which reaped rich benefits when Pakistan tried to push through a resolution in the UN on the human rights situation in Kashmir and it failed because of opposition by China and Iran.
• India’s first anti-terrorism legislation, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) was passed by Rao’s government.
• Rao was above party politics. This became evident when he appointed two opposition party members, A B Vajpayee and Subramanian Swamy to important positions. Vajpayee represented India in a UN meeting at Geneva and Swamy was given a Cabinet rank post as Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade.
• Rao was accused of corruption in three cases but was acquitted of all charges later.
• After the 1996 elections, his party lost and he was replaced as the party president by Sitaram Kesri.
• Rao had a heart attack in December 2004 and was admitted to AIIMS in New Delhi. However, he died a few days later on 23^rd December 2004.
• There have been demands for the Bharat Ratna to be bestowed on Rao for his contribution to India.
• Former President APJ Abdul Kalam described Rao as a “patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system.”