Premiership of Morarji Desai

Morarji Desai
4th Prime Minister of India
In office 24 March 1977 – 15 July 1979
President	Basappa Danappa Jatti and Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Preceded by	Indira Gandhi
Succeeded by	Choudhary Charan Singh
Personal details
Born	29 February 1896 Bhadeli, Bombay Presidency, India
Died	New Delhi, India
Political party	Congress (up to 1969), Congress(O) (1969-1977), Janata Party
Occupation	Civil servant, Activist
Religion	Hindu

The premiership of Morarji Desai extended from 24 March 1977 to 15 July 1979. In the Indian general election, 1977 Morarji Desai led the Janata Party to victory against the Congress party. Upon taking office, Morarji Desai became the first Indian Prime Minister not belonging to the Congress party.

Emergency and election victory

See also: Indian Emergency

The Janata Party was formed by political leaders and activists of various political parties who had been united in opposing the state of emergency imposed in 1975 by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After elections were called in 1977, the Janata Party was formed from the union of the Congress (O), Swatantra Party, Socialist Party of India, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Lok Dal. Congress defector Jagjivan Ram, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna & Nandini Satpathy formed the Congress for Democracy and joined the Janata alliance. The widespread unpopularity of Emergency rule gave Janata and its allied a landslide victory in the election.

Morarji Desai ministry

Morarji Desai ministry
7th cabinet of the Republic of India
Date formed	24 March 1977 (1977-03-24)
Date dissolved	28 July 1979 (1979-07-28)
People and organisations
Head of government	Morarji Desai
Head of state	Basappa Danappa Jatti (Acting) (until 25 July 1977) Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (from 25 July 1977)
Member party	Janata Party (Janata alliance)
Status in legislature	Majority
Opposition party	Indian National Congress (Congress Alliance)
Opposition leader	Yashwantrao Chavan (1 July 1977– 11 April 1978) C. M. Stephen (12 April 1978 – 9 July 1979) Yashwantrao Chavan (from 10 July 1979)
History
Election(s)	1977
Outgoing election	1980
Legislature term(s)
Predecessor	Second Indira Gandhi ministry
Successor	Charan Singh ministry

Cabinet ministers

Portfolio	Minister		Took office	Left office	Party
Prime Minister		Morarji Desai	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Deputy Prime Minister		Charan Singh	January 1979	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Deputy Prime Minister		Jagjivan Ram	January 1979	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of Finance		Haribhai M. Patel	24 March 1977	24 January 1979	Janata Party
		Charan Singh	24 January 1979	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of Home Affairs		Charan Singh	24 March 1977	1 July 1978	Janata Party
		Morarji Desai	1 July 1978	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of Defence		Jagjivan Ram	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of External Affairs		Atal Bihari Vajpayee	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of Information and Broadcasting		Lal Krishna Advani	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of Industry		George Fernandes	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party
Minister of Agriculture		Parkash Singh Badal	24 March 1977	20 June 1977	Akali Dal
		Surjit Singh Barnala	20 June 1977	28 July 1979	Akali Dal
Minister of Works and Housing and Supply and Rehabilitation		Sikandar Bakht	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party

• Pratap Chandra Chunder- Minister of Education
• Shanti Bhushan- Minister of Law and Justice
• Brij Lal Verma- Minister of Communications
• Madhu Dandavate- Minister of the Railways
• Raj Narain- Minister of Health
• Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna- Minister of Petroleum
• Ravindra Varma- Minister of Labour and Parliamentary affairs
• Mohan Dharia- Minister of Commerce
• Biju Patnaik
• Purushottam Kaushik

Rabi Ray was inducted in January 1979 to fill in the vacancy caused by Raj Narain's exit.

Ministers of state

• Abha Maiti
• Satish Chandra Agrawal
• Krishana Kumar Goyal
• Jagadambi Prasad Yadav
• Renuka Devi Barkataki
• Arif Beg
• Ishaq Jamkhanawala

Reversal of Emergency decrees

The first actions taken by the Desai government were to formally end the state of emergency and media censorship and repeal the controversial executive decrees issued during the Emergency. The Constitution was amended to make it more difficult for any future government to declare a state of emergency; fundamental freedoms and the independence of India's judiciary was reaffirmed. The new government also proceeded to withdraw all charges against the 25 accused in the Baroda dynamite case, which included the new Minister of Industry, George Fernandes. The Minister of Railways reinstated the railway employees disciplined after the May 1974 strike. The Desai government proceeded to establish inquiry commissions and tribunals to investigate allegations of corruption and human rights abuses by members of Indira Gandhi's government, political party and the police forces. Specific inquiries were instituted on Sanjay Gandhi's management of the state-owned Maruti Udyog Ltd., the activities of the former Minister of Defence Bansi Lal and the 1971 Nagarwala scandal. Both Indira and her son Sanjay were charged with allegations of corruption and briefly arrested.

Economic policy

See also: Double Seven

The Janata government had lesser success in achieving economic reforms. It launched the Sixth Five-Year Plan, aiming to boost agricultural production and rural industries. Seeking to promote economic self-reliance and indigenous industries, the government required multi-national corporations to go into partnership with Indian corporations. The policy proved controversial, diminishing foreign investment and led to the high-profile exit of corporations such as Coca-Cola and IBM from India. But the government was unable to address the issues of resurging inflation, fuel shortages, unemployment and poverty. The legalisation of strikes and re-empowerment of trade unions affected business efficiency and economic production.