Primeminister of India

PRIME MINISTERS OF INDIA
PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

INDIA follows a parliamentary system of government. In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of the government and head of the executive branch. The Prime Minister of India is the most powerful person, chief of Government, head of Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in the parliament. The Prime Minister is the chairman of the cabinet and selects and can dismiss the member of the cabinet; allocates the posts to members within the Government and responsible to bring proposal of legislation.

The Prime Minister is appointed by the President to assist the administration of the affairs of executive. The Prime Minister is generally the leader of party(or coalition of parties) that has majority in Lok Sabha, the lower house in parliament of India. The Prime Minister has to be a current member of one of the houses of parliament or be elected within six months of being appointed. The Prime Minister is responsible for aiding and advising the president in distribution of work of the Government to various ministries and offices and in terms of the Government f India.

The Prime Minister is the ex officio chairman of Planning Commission of India. The Prime Minister represents the country in various delegation, high level meetings and international organizations that require the attendance of highest Government office. The Prime Minister has exclusive jurisdiction over disposal of two national funds, (i) the PMs National Relief Fund and (ii) the PMs National Defence Fund.

Prime Minister of India must be
A citizen of India Should be the member of Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha Of 25 years age (in the case of a seat in the House of People) or above 30 years of age (in the case of a seat in the Council of States) Should not hold any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any state or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments. COMPENSATION Salary : INR 100,000 Residence : The Panchavati Aircraft: Air India One
First Prime Minister of India
Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

(Nov. 14, 1889 May 27, 1964)
Born in Alhabad , son of Motilal Nehru and Swaroop Rani. He did his schooling from Harrow and completed his Law degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. On 8 February, 1916, Nehru married seventeen year old Kamala Kaul. He took active part in the Non- Cooperation Movement (19201922). From 1926 to 1928, he served as the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee. He was elected to the Congress presidency in 1936, 1937, and 1946. He took a leading part in the negotiations that culminated in the emergence of the dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947. On 15th August,1947, he became the first Prime Minister of independent India.
1st Prime Minister of India

He effectively coped with the formidable challenges of those times: the disorders and mass exodus of minorities across the new border with Pakistan, the integration of 500-odd princely states into the Indian Union, the framing of a new constitution, and the establishment of the political and administrative infrastructure for a parliamentary democracy. He set up a Planning Commission in 1951, encouraged development of science and technology, and launched three successive fiveyear plans. His policies led to a sizable growth in agricultural and industrial production.

Nehru pursued land redistribution and launched programmes to build irrigation canals, dams and spread the use of fertilizers to increase agricultural production. While encouraging the construction of large dams (which Nehru called the New Temples of India"), irrigation works and the generation of hydroelectricity, Nehru also launched India's programme to harness nuclear energy. His government oversaw the establishment of many institutions of higher learning, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management.

Under Nehru, the Indian Parliament enacted many changes to Hindu law to criminalize caste discrimination and increase the legal rights and social freedoms of women. Nehru also launched initiatives such as the provision of free milk and meals to children in order to fight malnutrition. Adult education centers, vocational and technical schools were also organized for adults, especially in the rural areas. Nehru also championed secularism and religious harmony, increasing the representation of minorities in government.

Nehru was a champion of pacifism and a strong supporter of the United Nations. He pioneered the policy of non-alignment and cofounded the Non-Aligned Movement of nations professing neutrality between the rival blocs of nations led by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Accepting the arbitration of the UK and World Bank, Nehru signed the Indus Water Treaty in 1960 with Pakistani ruler Ayub Khan to resolve long-standing disputes about sharing the resources of the major rivers of the Punjab region. Nehru authorized the Indian Army to invade Goa in 1961, and then he annexed it to India.

The Sino-Indian War
In 1954, China and India negotiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, by which the two nations agreed to abide in settling their disputes. India presented a frontier map which was accepted by China, and the Indian government under Prime Minister Nehru promoted the slogan Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai (Indians and Chinese are brothers). This apparent progress in relations suffered a major setback when, in 1959, Nehru accommodated the Tibetan religious leader at the time, the 14th Dalai Lama, who fled Lhasa after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. In August 1959, the People's Liberation Army took an Indian prisoner at Longju, which had an ambiguous position in the McMahon Line, and two months later in Aksai Chin, a clash led to the death of nine Indian frontier policemen. China's maps showed both the North East Frontier Area (NEFA) and Aksai Chin to be Chinese territory.

Nehru believed that China did not have a legitimate claim over either of these territories, and thus was not ready to concede them. Nehru declined to conduct any negotiations on the boundary until Chinese troops withdrew from Aksai Chin, a position supported by the international community. The Chinese launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line on 20 October 1962. Chinese troops advanced over Indian forces in both theatres, capturing Rezang la in Chushul in the western theatre, as well as Tawang in the eastern theatre. The war ended when the Chinese declared a ceasefire on 20 November 1962, and simultaneously announced its withdrawal from the disputed area. After the war, India abandoned the Forward Policy, and the de facto borders stabilized along the Line of Actual Control.

In the 1962 elections, Nehru led the Congress to victory yet with a diminished majority. Opposition parties ranging from the right-wing Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Swatantra Party, socialists and the Communist Party of India performed well. Nehru's health began declining steadily, and he spent months recuperating in Kashmir through 1963. Upon his return from Kashmir in May 1964, Nehru suffered a stroke and later a heart attack. He died in the early hours of 27 May 1964. He Conferred Bharat Ratna (1955). He holds the record for continuously being in the office for the longest period (Aug. 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964) about 17 years, or 6,131 days.
Second Prime Minister of India
Gulzari Lal Nanda

(July 4, 1898 - January 15, 1998)
Born in Sialkot (now in Pakistan). He received his education in Lahore, Amritsar, Agra, and Allahabad. In 1922, he became secretary of the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association where he worked until 1946. He was imprisoned for Satyagraha in 1932, and again from 1942 to 1944. He was the interim Prime Minister of India twice for thirteen days each: the first time after the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, and the second time after the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. (Both his terms ended after the ruling INC party procedurally elected a new prime minister.) The Government of India honored Nanda with the Bharat Ratna award in 1997.
Third Prime Minister of India
Lal Bahadur Shastri

(2 October 1904 - 11 January 1966)
Born in Mughalsarai,(UP), son of Sharada Srivastava Prasad, and Ramdulari Devi. He lost his father when he was only one. Her mother raised Lal Bahadur and her two daughters at her father's house. He went to Varanasi for higher education at the age of Ten . He joined Non co-operation Movement in 1921 and was arrested at the age of 17. He actively participated in Quit India Movement in 1942 and arrested and was released in 1945. When Govind Vallabh Pant became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he appointed Lal Bahadur Shastri as his Parliamentary Secretary. In 1947, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the Minister of Police and Transport in Pant's Cabinet.
3rd Prime Minister of India
Lal Bahadur Shastri

In 1952, Jawahar Lal Nehru appointed Lal Bahadur Shastri as the Railways and Transport Minister in the Central Cabinet. He resigned from Railways in 1956, owning moral responsibility for a railway accident. He became the Home Minister in 1961, after the death of Govind Vallabh Pant. In the 1962 India-China war Shastriji played a key role in maintaining internal security of the country. After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, Shastri was unanimously elected as the Prime Minister of India. In 1965, Pakistan tried to take advantage of India's vulnerability and attacked India. To enthuse soldiers and farmers he coined the slogan of "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan".
Lal Bahadur Shastri

Indo-Pak War of 1965
Pakistan-trained infiltrators supported by its regular army soldiers were pushed into Indian territory with the purpose of sabotage, disruption and distribution of arms among the locals to start a guerrilla uprising. The death in May 1964 of Pundit Nehru and the coming to power of the late Shastri as Nehru's successor were treated by Pakistan as an encouragement to complete its unfinished war of 1947. The war began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against rule by India.
Lal Bahadur Shastri

On March 20, 1965, and later in April 1965, fighting broke out between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch. In June 1965, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson successfully persuaded both countries to end hostilities and set up a tribunal to resolve the dispute. Pakistan awarded 350 square miles (900 km) of the Rann of Kutch, as against its original claim of 3,500 square miles (9,100 km2). After its success in the Rann of Kutch, Pakistan, under the leadership of General Ayub Khan, believed the Indian Army would be unable to defend itself against a quick military campaign in the disputed territory of Kashmir as the Indian military had suffered a loss to China in 1962.
Lal Bahadur Shastri

On August 5, 1965 between 26,000 and 33,000 Pakistani soldiers crossed the Line of Control dressed as Kashmiri locals headed for various areas within Kashmir. Indian forces, tipped off by the local populace, crossed the cease fire line on August 15. On September 1, 1965, Pakistan launched a counterattack, called Operation Grand Slam, with the objective to capture the vital town of Akhnoor in Jammu. India crossed the International Border on the Western front on September 6, marking an official beginning of the war. The war was heading for a stalemate, with both nations holding territory of the other. The war lasted for five weeks. Indian army suffered 3,000 battlefield deaths, while Pakistan suffered 3,800.
Lal Bahadur Shastri

The United States and the Soviet Union used significant diplomatic tools to prevent any further escalation in the conflict between the two South Asian nations. The Soviet Union, led by Premier Alexei Kosygin, hosted ceasefire negotiations January 10, 1966 in Tashkent (now in Uzbekistan), where Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Ayub Khan signed the Tashkent Agreement, agreeing to withdraw to pre-August lines. Lal Bahadur Shastri died of heart attack on the same night after the declaration of the ceasefire. He held office for 582 days, from June 9, 1964 to January 11, 1966. Conferred Bharat Ratna (posthumous, 1966). The then Congress Party President K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister after the sudden demise of Shastri.
Fourth Prime Minister of India
Indira Gandhi
(Nov. 19, 1917,Oct. 31, 1984)
Born in Allahabad and the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru. She was the Prime Minister of the India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. She is India's only female prime minister to date. She is the world's all-time longest serving female Prime Minister. In 193435, after finishing school, Indira joined Shantiniketan,a school set up by Rabindranath Tagore, who gave her the name Priyadarshini (priya=pleasing, darshini=to look at). Subsequently, she went to England and studied at the University of Oxford.
During this time, she met Feroze Gandhi, whom she knew from Allahabad, and who was studying at the London School of Economics. She married him in 1942.
4th Prime Minister of India
Indira Gandhi
Returning to India in 1941, she became involved in the Indian Independence movement. In the 1950s, she served her father unofficially as a personal assistant during his tenure as the first Prime Minister of India. After her father's death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. The Syndicate selected her as prime minister when Shastri died in 1966. The Congress was split in two factions, the socialists led by Gandhi, and the conservatives led by Morarji Desai. Rammanohar Lohia.
Indira Gandhi
Congress' internal crisis stared at its face in the results of the 1967 elections. For the first time, it lost nearly 60 seats in the Lower House, managing to win 283 seats. In order to keep dissident voices at bay, she appointed Morarji Desai, who had opposed her candidature as PM after Nehru's death, as Deputy Prime Minister of India and Finance Minister of India. In 1969 after many disagreements with Desai, the Indian National Congress split. She ruled with support from Socialist and Communist Parties for the next two years. In July 1969 she nationalized banks. Not wanting to head a minority government any longer, she called for a mid-term election to the Lok Sabha a full one year ahead of schedule.
Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi steered the Congress to a landslide victory in 1971. Campaigning on the slogan of Garibi Hatao" (eliminate poverty), she returned in Parliament with 352 seats. Indira Gandhi took bold decisions during the IndiaPakistan war in 1971 that resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh. India's victory in December 1971 was hailed by all Indians as it came in the face of diplomatic opposition from both China and the United States. There was hardly any international support from almost every other nation except the erstwhile Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries. India was victorious in the 1971 war, and Bangladesh was born.
Indira Gandhi
Indo-Pak War 1971
In 1970 Pakistani election, in which the East Pakistani Awami League won 167 of 169 seats in East Pakistan and secured a simple majority in the 313-seat lower house of the Majlis-eShoora (Parliament of Pakistan). Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman presented the Six Points to the President of Pakistan and claimed the right to form the government. After the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, refused to yield the premiership of Pakistan to Mujibur, President Yahya Khan called the military, dominated by West Pakistanis, to suppress dissent. After several days of strikes and non-cooperation movements, the Pakistani military cracked down on Dhaka on the night of 25 March 1971. The Awami League was banished and Mujib was arrested on the night of 2526 March 1971.
Indira Gandhi
Indo-Pak War 1971
The Pakistan army conducted a widespread genocide against the Bengali population of East Pakistan, aimed in particular at the minority Hindu population, leading to approximately 10 million people fleeing East Pakistan and taking refuge in the neighboring Indian states. The national Indian government repeatedly appealed to the international community, but failing to elicit any response, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 27 March 1971 expressed full support of her government for the independence struggle of the people of East Pakistan. On 23 November, Yahya Khan declared a state of emergency in all of Pakistan and told his people to prepare for war. On the evening of 3 December, at about 5:40 p.m.,the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) launched a pre-emptive strike on eleven airfields in north-western India
Indira Gandhi
Indo-Pak War 1971
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi held that the air strikes were a declaration of war against India and the Indian Air Force responded with initial air strikes that very night. The war ended in just 13 days and it is considered one of the shortest wars in history. The war effectively came to an end after the Eastern Command of the Pakistani Armed Forces signed the Instrument of Surrender, the first and perhaps the only public surrender to date, on December 16, 1971 following which East Pakistan seceded as the independent state of Bangladesh. India took approximately 90,000 prisoners of war, including Pakistani soldiers and their East Pakistani civilian supporters. They were released by India only after the negotiation and signing of the Simla Agreement on July 2, 1972.
Indira Gandhi
A national nuclear program was started by Gandhi in 1967, in response to the nuclear threat from the People's Republic of China and to establish India's stability and security interests as independent from those of the nuclear superpowers. In 1974, India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, unofficially code named as "Smiling Buddha", near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan. Describing the test as for peaceful purposes, India became the world's then youngest nuclear power. Due to her antipathy for Nixon, relations with the United States grew distant, while relations with the Soviet Union grew closer.
Indira Gandhi
On 12 June 1975 the High Court of Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha void on grounds of electoral malpractice. In an election petition filed by Raj Narain (who later on defeated her in 1977 parliamentary election from Rae Bareily), he had alleged several major as well as minor instances of using government resources for campaigning. The court thus ordered her to be removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running in elections for six years. But Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The prime minister retained the support of her party, which issued a statement backing her.
Indira Gandhi
Gandhi moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. Her Cabinet and government then recommended that President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declare a state of emergency, because of the disorder and lawlessness following the Allahabad High Court decision. Accordingly, Ahmed declared a State of Emergency caused by internal disorder, based on the provisions of Article 352 of the Constitution, on 26 June 1975. Within a few months, President's Rule was imposed on the two opposition party ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu thereby bringing the entire country under direct Central rule or by governments led by the ruling Congress party.
Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi used the emergency provisions to grant herself extraordinary powers. It is alleged that she further moved President Ahmed to issue ordinances that did not need to be debated in the Parliament, allowing her to rule by decree. Simultaneously, Gandhi's government undertook a campaign to stamp out dissent including the arrest and detention of thousands of political activists. Sanjay Gandhi was instrumental in initiating the clearing of slums around Delhi's Jama Masjid under the supervision of Jag Mohan, later Lt. Governor of Delhi, allegedly left thousands of people homeless and hundreds killed and the family planning program which forcibly imposed vasectomy on thousands of fathers and was often poorly administered.
Indira Gandhi
After extending the state of emergency twice, in 1977 Indira Gandhi called for elections, to give the electorate a chance to vindicate her rule. Gandhi, on January 23, called fresh elections for March and released all political prisoners. Four Opposition parties, the Organisation Congress, the Jan Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Socialist Party, decided to fight the elections as a single party, called the Janata Party. The Congress lost the elections for the first time in independent India and Janata Party leader Morarji Desai, who had been released from prison two months before the elections, won 298 seats. Desai became India's first non-Congress Prime Minister on March 24.
Fifth Prime Minister of India
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai

(29 February 1896 10 April 1995)
Born into an in Bhadeli, Valsad in Bombay Presidency (Gujarat). After graduating from Wilson College, Mumbai, he joined the civil service in Gujarat. Later, he left the service of the British in 1924 and joined the civil disobedience movement against British rule in India in 1930. He spent many years in jail during the freedom struggle and owing to his sharp leadership skills and tough spirit, he became a favourite amongst freedom-fighters and an important leader of the Indian National Congress in Gujarat. Before the independence of India, he became Bombay's Home Minister and later was elected as Chief Minister of Bombay State in 1952.
Morarji Desai
Denied the prime ministership in 1964 and 1966, Desai challenged Mrs. Gandhi for the leadership in 1967 and lost. He became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance but neither was comfortable with each other. In 1969 following the split in Congress he left the government. Desai joined with the opposition in the campaign against Mrs. Gandhi in 1975. During the State of Emergency, he spent eighteen months in jail, much of it in solitary confinement. He was released in January 1977 and became the world's oldest Prime Minister at the age of 81 when the Janata Dal came to power.
Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai led a fractious coalition government, and thus failed to achieve much owing to continuous in-wrangling and much controversy. Controversial trials of prominent Congress leaders, including Indira Gandhi over Emergency-era abuses worsened the fortunes of his administration. His government undid many amendments made to the constitution during emergency and made it difficult for any future government to impose national emergency. Desai worked to improve relations with neighbour and archrival Pakistan and restored normal relations with China, for the first time since the 1962 war. He communicated with Zia-ul-Haq and established friendly relations and diplomatic relations were also re-established with China.
Morarji Desai
The leader of the Janata Party was Jayaprakash Narayan who kept the party united. The other party leaders of the Janata Party were Morarji Desai , Charan Singh , Raj Narain and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Janata government's Home Minister, Choudhary Charan Singh, ordered the arrest of Indira and Sanjay Gandhi on several charges, none of which would be easy to prove in an Indian court. However, this strategy backfired disastrously. Her arrest and long-running trial, however, gained her great sympathy from many people who had feared her as a tyrant just two years earlier. Jayaprakash Narayan died on 8 October 1979, which broke the unity of the Janata Party and Desai took his place.
Morarji Desai
In 1979, Raj Narain and Charan Singh pulled out of the Janata Party, forcing Desai to resign from office and retire from politics at the age of 83. Charan Singh, who had retained some partners of the Janata alliance, was sworn in as Prime Minister in June 1979. Desai hold the Government for 857 days, from March 24, 1977 to July 28, 1979. Desai conferred Bharat Ratna in 1991. He is the first Indian to receive Nishan-e-Pakistan ( the highest of civil awards and decorations given by the Government of Pakistan). He lived in Bombay, and died at the age of 99.
Sixth Prime Minister of India
Chaudhary Charan Singh

(23 December 1902 29 May 1987)
Born in Noorpur, Meerut Dist., U. P. He received a Masters of Arts degree in 1925 and Law degree in 1926 from Agra University. In February 1937 he was elected Chhaprouli (Baghpat) to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh (United Provinces) at the age of 34. He was jailed by the British several times during independence movement. In 1952, he became the Revenue Minister of state of Uttar Pradesh. Charan Singh left the Congress party in 1967, and formed his own political party. With the help and support of Raj Narain and Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya, he became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1967, and later in 1970.

In 1975, he was jailed during 'Indian Emergency (1975-1977). The leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal, a major constituent of the Janata coalition, he was disappointed in his ambition to become Prime Minister in 1977 by Jayaprakash Narayan's choice of Morarji Desai. He settled at the time for the largely honorary post of Deputy Prime Minister of India. However, the internal stresses of the coalition's government caused him to leave the government with the former Lok Dal, after being promised by Mrs. Gandhi the support of the Congress Party on the floor of the House in any efforts to form a government. He was sworn in as Prime Minister with the support of just 64 MPs. During his term as Prime Minister the Lok Sabha never met.

The day before the Lok Sabha was due to meet for the first time the Indian National Congress withdrew their support from his Bharatiya Lok Dal Government. Choudhary Charan Singh resigned and fresh elections were held six months later. Till that time he remained as caretaker Prime Minister He was in office for 171 days, from July 28, 1979 to Jan. 14, 1980. He continued to lead the Lok Dal in opposition till his death in 1987. His association with the causes dear to farming communities caused his memorial in New Delhi to be named Kisan Ghat.
Prime Minister of India
Indira Gandhi
Congress was returned to power with a landslide majority in January, 1980 General Election. Mrs. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India again. In the 1980s, Money meant for aid given by Mrs. Gandhi was used by the LTTE and other Tamil militant groups in Sri Lanka. Although Mrs. Gandhi never meant to give the support to terrorism, she gave it to groups for aid for Tamils but these groups went ahead and transferred the installments to the LTTE without her knowledge. In July 1982, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's Sikh group occupied the Golden Temple. In response, on 6 June 1984, during one of the holiest Sikh holidays, enacting Operation Blue Star, the Indian army opened fire, killing a disputed number of Sikhs along with supporters of Bhindranwale.
Indira Gandhi
On 31 October 1984, two of Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, assassinated her with their service weapons in the garden of the Prime Minister's residence at 1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi as she was walking past a wicket gate guarded by Satwant and Beant. Gandhi died on her way to the hospital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where doctors operated on her. She was cremated on 3 November near Raj Ghat. She held office from Jan. 24, 1966 to March 24, 1977 and again from Jan. 14 to Oct. 31,1984, for a total of 5,831 days, just 300 days short of her father, Pt. Nehru. Conferred Bharat Ratna in 1971. After Indira Gandhi's death, Rajiv became Prime Minister.
Seventh Prime Minister of India
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi

(20 August 1944 21 May 1991)
Born in Mumbai, the elder son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi. Educated initially at the Welham Boys' School and later The Doon School, both located at Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He was sent to London in 1961 to study his A-levels. In 1962, he was offered a place at Trinity College, Cambridge to study engineering. Rajiv stayed at Cambridge until 1965 and left the university without a degree mainly because he did not appear in the final Tripos examinations. In 1966, he was offered a place at the Imperial College London. He again left Imperial College after a year without a degree. In the January of 1965, he met Italian Antonia (Sonia) Maino in Varsity restaurant in Cambridge. Maino came to India with Rajiv and they were married in 1968.
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi

He began working for Indian Airlines as a professional pilot while his mother became Prime Minister in 1966. He exhibited no interest in politics and did not live regularly with his mother in Delhi at the Prime Minister's residence. In 1970, his wife gave birth to their first child Rahul Gandhi, and in 1972, to Priyanka Gandhi, their second. Following his younger brother's death in 1980, Gandhi was pressured by Indian National Congress party politicians and his mother to enter politics. Elected to Sanjay's Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state in February 1981. He soon became the president of the Youth Congress - the Congress party's youth wing.
Rajiv Gandhi
Top Congress leaders, as well as President Zail Singh pressed Rajiv to become India's Prime Minister, within hours of his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984. He became the youngest Prime Minister so far at the age of 41. Soon after assuming office, Rajiv asked President Zail Singh to dissolve Parliament and hold fresh elections, as the Lok Sabha completed its five year term. Rajiv Gandhi also officially became the President of the Congress party. The Congress party won a landslide victory with the largest majority (404 Lok Sabha seats) in history of Indian Parliament giving Gandhi absolute control of government.
Rajiv Gandhi
He increased government support for science and technology and associated industries, and reduced import quotas, taxes and tariffs on technology-based industries, especially computers, airlines, defence and telecommunications. He introduced measures significantly reducing the License Raj, allowing businesses and individuals to purchase capital, consumer goods and import without bureaucratic restrictions. In 1986, he announced a National Policy on Education to modernize and expand higher education programs across India. He founded the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya System in 1986, which is a Central government based institution that concentrates on the upliftment of the rural section of the society providing them free residential education from 6th till 12 grade.
Rajiv Gandhi
His efforts created MTNL in 1986, and his public call offices, better known as PCOs, helped spread telephones in rural areas. He improved bilateral relations with the United States long strained owing to Indira's socialism and close friendship with the USSR and expanded economic and scientific cooperation. In 1988, Rajiv reversed the coup in Maldives antagonising the militant Tamil outfits such as PLOTE. The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan President J.R.Jayewardene, in Colombo on 29 July 1987. The very next day, on 30 July 1987, Rajiv Gandhi was assaulted on the head with a rifle butt by a young Sinhalese naval cadet. The intended assault on the back of Rajiv Gandhi's head however glanced off his shoulder.
Rajiv Gandhi
The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord also underlined the commitment of Indian military assistance on which the Indian Peace Keeping Force came to be inducted into Sri Lanka. The main task of the IPKF was to disarm the different militant groups, not just the LTTE. The IPKF operation killed over 1100 Indian soldiers, 25000 Tamils and cost over 10000 crores Rupees. The IPKF began withdrawing from Sri Lanka in 1989, following the election of the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government in India and on the request of the newly-elected Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa.The last IPKF contingents left Sri Lanka in March 1990.
Rajiv Gandhi
Gandhi moved swiftly to deal with the Sikh agitation. In 1985 the Rajiv-Longowal Accord was signed which granted the Sikhs most of their demands. This agreement was also accompanied by accords in Assam and Mizoram. By early 1986 Rajiv had effected a U-turn in domestic policy. Many of the provisions of the Rajiv-Longowal Accord remained unimplemented and thereafter he resorted to using the policy of force. In 1987 Punjab was placed under President's Rule. This reversal was followed by a dispute with President Zail Singh and the constant shuffling of ministers. Gandhi's finance minister, V. P. Singh, uncovered compromising details about government and political corruption, to the consternation of Congress leaders.
Rajiv Gandhi
Transferred to the Defence ministry, Singh uncovered what became known as the Bofors scandal, involving tens of millions of dollars - concerned alleged payoffs by the Swedish Bofors arms company through Italian businessman and Gandhi family associate Ottavio Quattrocchi, in return for Indian contracts. Upon the uncovering of the scandal, Singh was dismissed from office, and later from Congress membership. Rajiv Gandhi himself was later personally implicated in the scandal. This shattered his image as an honest politician; he was posthumously cleared over this allegation in 2004, however. In the 1989 elections, the Congress suffered a major setback. Gandhi became the Leader of the Opposition, while remaining Congress president.
Rajiv Gandhi
With the support of Indian communists and the Bharatiya Janata Party, V.P.Singh and his Janata Dal formed a government on October 11, 1988. However, the Congress was still the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. BJP leader L K Advani started the Rath Yatra on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue and was arrested in Bihar by state chief minister Lalu Yadav, the party withdrew support to the VP Singh government. Singh resigned after losing the trust vote. Chandra Shekhar broke away from the Janata Dal with 64 MPs and formed the Samajwadi Janata Party. He got outside support from the Congress and became the 11th Prime Minister of India. He finally resigned on March 6, 1991, after the Congress alleged that the government was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi
The 10th Lok Sabha Elections were a mid-term one as the previous Lok Sabha had been dissolved just 16 months after government formation. Rajiv Gandhi's last public meeting was at Sriperumbudur on 21 May 1991, in a village approximately 30 miles from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, where he was assassinated while campaigning for the Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha Congress candidate. The assassination was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam also known as Gayatri and Dhanu. Conferred Bharat Ratna (posthumous, 1991).
Vishwanath Pratap Singh

(25 June 1931 27 November 2008)
Born in the Rajput Gaharwal (Rathore) Royal Family of Manda to Raja Bhagwati Prasad Singh of Daiya and was later adopted by Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh of Mana in 1936, whom he succeeded in 1941. Studied at Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun for five years, and entered local politics in Allahabad during the Nehru era. Married Rani Sita Kumari, daughter of Rawat Sangram Singh II of Deogarh on 25 June 1955. He was appointed by Indira Gandhi as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1980. He was appointed by Rajiv Gandhi as the Finance Minister in Central Government in 1984 and oversaw the gradual relaxation of the license Raj as Rajiv had in mind.
V. P. Singh
During his term as Finance Minister, he oversaw the reduction of gold smuggling by reducing gold taxes and the excellent tactic of giving the police a portion of the smuggled gold that they found. He also gave extraordinary powers to the Enforcement Directorate of the Finance Ministry, the wing of the ministry charged with tracking down tax evaders, then headed by Bhure Lal. Following a number of high-profile raids on suspected evaders - including Dhirubhai Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan - Rajiv was forced to sack him as Finance Minister. However, Singh's popularity was at such a pitch that only a sideways move seemed to have been possible, to the Defence Ministry.
V. P. Singh
Word began to spread that Singh possessed information about the Bofors defence deal that could damage the Prime Minister's reputation. Before he could act on it, he was dismissed from the Cabinet and, in response, resigned his memberships in the Congress Party and the Lok Sabha Together with associates Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan, Singh floated an opposition party named the Jan Morcha. On 11 October 1988, the Janata Dal was formed by merger of Jan Morcha, Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress (S), in order to bring together all the centrist parties opposed to the Rajiv Gandhi government, and V. P. Singh was elected the President of the Janata Dal.
V. P. Singh
A federation of the Janata Dal with various regional parties including the DMK, TDP, and AGP, came into being, called the National Front (India), with V. P. Singh as convener and N. T. Rama Rao as President. The National Front fought the elections in 1989 after coming to an electoral understanding with the rightwing BJP and the Communist Left Front that served to unify the anti-Congress vote. The National Front, with its allies, earned a simple majority in the Lok Sabha and decided to form a government. The Communists and the BJP declined to serve in the government, preferring to support it from outside. Singh hold office on 2 December 1989.
V. P. Singh
He faced his first crisis, when terrorists kidnapped the daughter of his Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his government agreed to the demand for releasing militants in exchange. Singh also withdrew the IPKF from Sri Lanka and thwarted the efforts of Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto to start a border war. He decided to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission which suggested that a fixed quota of all jobs in the public sector be reserved for members of the historically disadvantaged so-called (Generally abbreviated OBCs, these were Hindu castes, and certain non-Hindu caste-like communities, which, though not untouchable, had been socially and educationally backward).
V. P. Singh
This decision led to widespread protests among the non-OBC youth in urban areas in North India. BJP party president, Lal Krishna Advani, toured the northern states on a rath - a bus converted to look like a mythical chariot - with the intention of drumming up support for the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation. Before he could complete the tour by reaching the disputed site in Ayodhya, he was arrested on Singh's orders on the charges of disturbing the peace and fomenting communal tension. This led to the BJP's suspension of support to the National Front government. He lost the majority in parliament Nov. 10, 1990. He hold the office for 344 days. V. P. Singh died after a long struggle with multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer) and renal failure at Apollo Hospital in Delhi on 27 November 2008.
Chandra Shekhar Singh

(1 July 1927 - 8 July 2007)
Born in Ibrahimpatti - Ballia (UP). Did his Master of Arts (MA) at Allahabad University. He joined Congress in 1964. From 1962 to 1967, Shekhar belonged to the Rajya Sabha. He entered the Lok Sabha in 1977. He vehemently criticized Indira Gandhi for her activities and was arrested during the emergency and sent to prison. After the emergency, he became the President of Janata Party. He had a nationwide padayatra in 1984. He was called a "Young Turk". In 1988, his party merged with other parties and formed the government under the leadership of V.P. Singh. His relationship with the coalition deteriorated and he formed another party, Janata Dal socialist faction.
Chandra Shekhar Singh

He replaced V.P. Singh as the Prime Minister of India in November 1990 with the support of Congress (I) headed by Rajiv Gandhi. The relationship crumbled quickly, as the Congress party accused him of spying on Rajiv Gandhi, their leader at that time. The Congress Party then boycotted Parliament and as Shekhar's faction only had about 60 MPs, he resigned in a nationally televised address on 6 March 1991. He continued in office until June 21, 1991 till the national elections could be held. He was the office for 224 days. He was honored with the inaugural Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1995. Shekhar suffered from multiple myeloma, a form of cancer of the plasma cell. He died at the age of 80 in New Delhi on 8 July 2007.
Pamulaparti Venkata "Narasimha Rao"

(28 June 1921 23 December 2004)
Born at Laknepally village in Warangal District to a Niyogi on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra Brahmin family and son of P. Ranga Rao and Rukminiamma. Studied Bachelor's in arts college, Subedari in Warangal, and later on went to Fergusson College at Nagpur, where he completed a Master's degree in law. In addition to eight Indian languages, he spoke English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek, Latin and Persian. He was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement and after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress. He served brief stints in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet (1962 1971) and as Chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh (19711973).
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Rao stayed on the side of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Indian National Congress split in 1969 and remained loyal to her during the Emergency period (197577). He rose to national prominence in 1972, most significantly Home, Defence and Foreign Affairs (19801984), in the cabinets of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Rao very nearly retired from politics in 1991. It was the assassination of the Congress President Rajiv Gandhi that made him make a comeback. As the Congress had won the largest number of seats in the 1991 elections, he got the opportunity to head the minority government as Prime Minister.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
He was the first person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve as Prime Minister for five continuous years, the first to hail from South India and also the first from the state of Andhra Pradesh. Since Rao had not contested the general elections, he then participated in a by-election to join the parliament. He won from Nandyal with a victory margin of a record 500,000 votes and his win was recorded in the Guinness Book Of World Records. His cabinet included Sharad Pawar, himself a strong contender for the Prime Minister's post, as defence minister. He also broke convention by appointing a non-political economist and future prime minister, Manmohan Singh as his finance minister.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Rao's major achievement is generally considered to be the liberalization of the Indian economy. The reforms were adopted to avert impending international default in 1991. The reforms progressed furthest in the areas of opening up to foreign investment, reforming capital markets, deregulating domestic business, and reforming the trade regime. Rao's government's goals were reducing the fiscal deficit, Privatization of the public sector, and increasing investment in infrastructure. Trade reforms and changes in the regulation of foreign direct investment were introduced to open India to foreign trade while stabilizing external loans. Manmohan Singh, an acclaimed economist, played a central role in implementing these reforms.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
The impact of the reforms was of total foreign investment (including foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and investment raised on international capital markets) in India grew from a minuscule US $132 million in 1991-92 to $5.3 billion in 1995-96. Rao began industrial policy reforms with the manufacturing sector. He slashed industrial licensing, leaving only 18 industries subject to licensing. Industrial regulation was rationalized. India's economy grew by an average of 6.3% between 1991-2000, a growth rate that continues with a predicted rate of 6.7% for 2005
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Rao energized the national nuclear security and ballistic missiles program, which ultimately resulted in the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests. He increased military spending, and set the Indian Army on course to fight the emerging threat of terrorism and insurgencies, as well as Pakistan and China's nuclear potentials. It was during his term that terrorism in the Indian state of Punjab was finally defeated. The Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir faced increased terrorist activity during Rao's tenure. Pakistan was directly charged with sheltering, arming and supplying infiltrators. Rao's government introduced the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), India's first anti-terrorism legislation, and sent the Indian Army into full swing to eliminate the infiltrators.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao was the only Indian prime minister to have initiated a pragmatic foreign policy by balancing relations between Islamic world and the Israel. He placed India's interests above narrow communal sentiments. Rao also made diplomatic overtures to Western Europe, the United States, and China. He decided in 1992 to bring into the open India's relations with Israel and permitted Israel to open an embassy in New Delhi. Rao launched the Look East foreign policy, which brought India closer to ASEAN. He decided to maintain a distance from the Dalai Lama in order to avoid aggravating Beijing's suspicions and concerns, and made successful overtures to Tehran.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
The long-agitated VHP activists and nationalists attacked the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya on 6 December, 1992. The site is the birthplace of Lord Sri Rama, on which India's first Mughal invader and emperor destroyed an existing Hindu temple in the early 16th century. This triggered one of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots in the country since its independence. In July 1993, Rao's government was facing a noconfidence motion, because the opposition felt that it did not have sufficient numbers to prove a majority. It was alleged that Rao, through a representative, offered millions of rupees to members of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and possibly a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal, to vote for him during the confidence motion.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Shailendra Mahato, one of those members who had accepted the bribe, turned approver. In 1996, after Rao's term in office had expired, investigations began in earnest in the case. In May 1995, senior leaders Arjun Singh and Narayan Dutt Tiwari quit the Congress and formed their own party. The Harshad Mehta scandal, the Vohra report on criminalisation of politics, the Jain hawala scandal and the 'Tandoor murder' case had damaged the Rao government's credibility. The BJP and its allies and the United Front, a coalition comprising the Left Front and the Janata Dal, were the Congress' main rivals in elections held in 1996.
P. V. Narasimha Rao
In the 1996 general elections Rao's Congress Party was badly defeated and he had to step down as Prime Minister. The BJP won 161 seats and the Congress 140-the halfway-mark in Parliament was 271. The President invited BJP leader A B Vajpayee to form the government, as he was the chief of the single largest party in Parliament. Rao's later life was marked by political isolation due to his association with corruption charges. Rao was acquitted on all charges prior to his death. He suffered a heart attack on 9 December 2004, and was taken to the AIIMS, where he died 14 days later at the age of 83. He hold the office from June 21, 1991 to May 10, 1996 (1, 785 days).
Atal Bihari Vajpayee

(December 25, 1924 )
Born in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, to Shri Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, a school teacher and Smt. Krishna Dev. He earned a masters degree in political science from the Victoria College (now Laxmibai College) and DAV College, Kanpur. In 1942,he was arrested during the Quit India movement. He became a close follower and aide to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). The RSS and BJS joined a wide-array of parties in 1975 at the time of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and Vajpayee was briefly jailed during that period. BJS joined the Janata coalition, when Indira Gandhi called elections in 1977.

Vajpayee took office as the Minister for External Affairs, under Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1977. During this tenure, he also became the first person to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi (in 1977), the "most unforgettable" moment in his life by his own admission. He went on a historic visit to People's Republic of China in 1979, normalizing relations with China for the first time since the 1962 Sino-Indian War. He also visited Pakistan and initiated normal dialogue and trade relations that had been frozen since the 1971 IndoPak War and subsequent political instability in both countries. Vajpayee resigned from government with Morarji Desai's resignation as prime minister in 1979.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with many BJS and RSS colleagues formed the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. Vajpayee became its founding President of BJP. BJP won only two parliamentary seats in the 1984 elections, however it established itself in the mainstream of Indian politics. During this period Vajpayee remained center-stage as party President and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. Political energy and expansion made BJP the single-largest political party in the Lok Sabha elected in 1996. The President invited BJP leader A B Vajpayee to form the government, as he was the chief of the single largest party in Parliament. Vajpayee took over as Prime Minister on May 16 and tried to get support from regional parties in Parliament. He failed and resigned 13 days later.
Haradanahalli Dodde Deve Gowda

Born on 18 May, 1933 in Haradanahalli village of Holenarasipura taluk, Hassan District in Karnataka. Civil Engineering diploma holder, joined the Indian National Congress Party in 1953 and remained a member till 1962. Deve Gowda was elected as MLA from Holenarasipur constituency as an independent candidate for Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1962 for three consecutive terms. He became the President of Janata Party twice at state level and president of the state Janata Dal in 1994. In 1994 he assumed office as the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka.
H. D. Deve Gowda
His leadership of the Third Front (a group of regional parties and Non-Congress and Non-BJP combine) led to his Prime Minister's job, when BJP failed to prove majority in parliament. Deve Gowda resigned as the Chief Minister of Karnataka on May 30, 1996 to be sworn in as the 12th Prime Minister of India on 1st June, 1996. Deve Gowda's government collapsed after less than a year, when the Congress Party withdrew its support in March 1997, forcing the third change in government in less than a year. Inder Kumar Gujral replaced Deve Gowda as the consensus choice for Prime Minister at the head of a 16party United Front coalition. He was in office from June 1, 1996 to April 21, 1997 (for roughly 11 months).
Indra Kumar Gujural

Born 4 December 1919, in the town of Jhelum in Western Punjab, now in Pakistan, son of Avtar Narain Gujral and Pushpa Gujral. He was married to Shiela Gujral on 26 May 1945. He is M.A., B.Com. Ph.D. & D.Litt. (Hons. Causa). He actively took part in India's freedom struggle, and was jailed in 1942 during the 'Quit India Movement'. In the tumultuous days of June 1975, he was minister of Information and Broadcasting. He was Ambassador of India to U.S.S.R. (Cabinet Rank) from 1976-1980. He left the Congress Party in the mid-1980s and joined the Janata Dal . He was Member of Parliament 1964 to 1976, 1989 to 1991; reelected to Rajya Sabha in 1992 from Bihar.
Indra Kumar Gujural

He was the Minister of External Affairs during 1989-1990. He was leader of the House, Rajya Sabha from June 1996; Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce & Textiles, 1993 to April 1996. He was the Minister of External Affairs from June 1, 1996. But when the Congress Party objected and threatened to withdraw its vote of support to the UF, the UF elected I.K. Gujral to lead the Government from April, 1997. His tenure ended just after 10 months when the Congress Party again decided to withdraw support to the UF. He resigned office on Nov. 28. 1997. The country would go to elections again in 1998. Elections were held following the premature dissolution of the Lok Sabha on December 4, 1997.

Post-poll alliance strategy gave the BJP-led alliance a working majority of some 265 seats. On March 19, Vajpayee took the oath as Prime Minister for second time. The 12th Lok Sabha had a life-span of 413 days, the shortest to date. In May 1998, India conducted five underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan. Two weeks later, Pakistan responded with its own nuclear weapon tests, making it the newest declared nation with nuclear weapons. In late 1998 and early 1999, Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan. With the historic inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999. The Vajpayee led government was faced with two crises in mid-1999.

On April 17, 1999, the AIADMK did pull the plug on the NDA. The BJP fell short of a single vote and the Vajpayee administration was reduced to a caretaker status pending fresh elections scheduled for October. The BJP continued to rule as an interim administration until the polling, the dates of which were announced on May 4, by the Election Commission. Operation Vijay (1999), launched in June 1999, saw the Indian military fighting thousands of militants and soldiers amidst heavy artillery shelling and while facing extremely cold weather, snow and treacherous terrain at the high altitude. Over 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the three-month long Kargil War, and it is estimated around 600-4000 Pakistani militants and soldiers died as well. India pushed back the Pakistani militants and Northern Light Infantry soldiers.

The BJP-led NDA had won 303 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha in the aftermath of Kargil operations, thereby securing a comfortable, stable majority. On 13 October 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as Prime Minister of India for the third time. The coalition government that was formed lasted its full term of 5 years the only non-Congress government to do so. In December 1999, Indian Airlines flight (IC 814) en-route Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked by five Pakistani terrorists and flown to Taliban ruled Afghanistan. The government ultimately caved in and released certain Kashmiri terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar, from prison and exchanged them for the passengers.

Vajpayee oversaw his National Highway Development Project and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana begin construction, in which he took a personal interest. In March 2000 Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, paid a state visit to India. His was the first state visit to India by a US President in 22 years. Vajpayee promoted pro-business, free market reforms to reinvigorate India's economic transformation and expansion that were started by former PM Narasimha Rao but stalled after 1996 due to unstable governments and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The economy had shown steady growth during the BJP rule and the disinvestment of PSUs had been on track. The Foreign Exchange Reserves of India stood at more than $100 billion (the seventh largest in the world and a record for India). The service sector had also generated a lot of jobs.

Vajpayee again broke the ice in the Indo-Pak relations by inviting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Delhi and Agra for a joint summit and peace talks. The summit failed to achieve a breakthrough, as President Musharraf declined to leave aside the issue of Kashmir. On December 13, 2001, a group of masked, armed men with fake IDs stormed the Parliament building in Delhi. The terrorists managed to kill several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed the men, who were later proven to be Pakistan nationals. Vajpayee ordered a mobilization of India's military forces, and as many as 500,000 servicemen amassed along the international boundary bordering Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Kashmir. Pakistan responded with the same. For as long as two years, both nations remained perilously close to a terrible war.

In 2000, the Tehelka group released incriminating videos of the BJP President Bangaru Laxman, senior army officers and NDA members accepting bribes from journalists posing as agents and businessmen. The Defense Minister George Fernandes was forced to resign following this Barak Missile Deal Scandal, another scandal involving the botched supplies of coffins for the soldiers killed in Kargil. Between December 2001 and March 2002: The VHP held the Government hostage in a major standoff in Ayodhya over the Ram temple. Tens of thousands of VHP activists amassed and threatened to overrun the site and forcibly build the temple. The communal violence and breakdown of law and order situation hung over the nation. The riots in Gujarat, "1,000 people, mainly Muslims, died in some of the worst religious violence in decades."

In late 2002 and 2003 the government pushed economic reforms, and the country's GDP growth accelerated at record levels, exceeding 6-7%. Good crop harvests and strong industrial expansion also helped the economy. In July 2003,Vajpayee, visited China, and met with various Chinese leaders. He recognized Tibet, as a part of China, which was reacted to positively, by the Chinese leadership, who the following year, recognized Sikkim, as a part of India. Sino-Indian Relations, improved greatly, in the following years. In NovemberDecember 2003, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three major state elections. BJP prepared for general elections in 2004.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was widely expected to retain power after the 2004 general election. The parliament had been dissolved before the completion of term in order to capitalize on the perceived 'feel-good factor' and BJP's recent successes in Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. On May 13, the BJP conceded defeat and the Congress was able to put together a comfortable majority of more than 335 members out of 543 (including external support from BSP, SP, MDMK and the Left front) with the help of its allies and under the direction of Sonia Gandhi. This post-poll alliance was called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). With the conditional support of the leftist parties from the outside, the UPA formed a government under Dr Manmohan Singh.

Vajpayee was criticized and blamed at a high-level party meeting. He decided to give up the position of the Leader of the Opposition to Lal Krishna Advani. However, he retained his post as Chairman of the NDA. In December 2005, Vajpayee announced his retirement from active politics, declaring that he would not participate in the next general election. He is awarded with 1992, Padma Vibhushan 1993, D.Lit from Kanpur University 1994, Lokmanya Tilak Award 1994, Best Parliamentarian Award: Bharat Ratna Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant Award
Dr. Manmohan Singh

Born to Gurmukh Singh and Amrit Kaur on 26 September 1932, in Gah, Punjab, (now in Chakwal District, Pakistan). After the Partition of India, his family migrated to Amritsar, India, where he studied at Hindu College. He attended Panjab University, Chandigarh, studying Economics and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1952 and 1954, respectively. He went on to read for the Economics Tripos at Cambridge as a member of St John's College. He won the Wright's Prize for distinguished performance in 1955 and 1957. Singh completed his studies from the University of Oxford where he was a member of Nuffield College. The title of his doctoral thesis was "Indias export performance, 1951 1960, export prospects and policy implications" and his thesis supervisor was Dr. I.M.D. Little
Dr. Manmohan Singh

In 1997, the University of Alberta awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Law degree. The University of Oxford awarded him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2006, and in October 2006, the University of Cambridge followed with the same honor. St. John's College further honored him by naming a Ph.D Scholarship after him, the Dr. Manmohan Singh Scholarship. After completing his D.Phil, Singh worked for United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 19661969. In 1982, he was appointed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and held the post until 1985. He went on to become the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India from 1985 to 1987.
Dr. Manmohan Singh

He was appointed Secretary General of the South Commission in Geneva from 1987 to 1990. In 1991, India's Prime Minister at the time, P.V. Narasimha Rao, chose Singh to be his Finance Minister. Rao and Singh thus implemented policies to open up the economy and change India's socialist economy to a more capitalistic one, dismantling the License Raj in the process, a system that inhibited the prosperity of private businesses. He initiated the process of the privatization of public sector companies. In 1993, Singh offered his resignation from the post of Finance Minister after a parliamentary investigation report criticized his ministry for not being able to anticipate a USD$1.8 billion securities scandal. Prime Minister Rao refused Singh's resignation.
Dr. Manmohan Singh

Singh was first elected to the upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, in 1991 and was reelected in 2001 and 2007. From 1998 to 2004, while the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power, Singh was the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. In 1999. After the 2004 general elections, the Indian National Congress stunned the incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by becoming the political party with the single largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha. In a surprise move, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi declared Manmohan Singh, a technocrat, as the UPA candidate for the Prime Minister post.
Dr. Manmohan Singh

He took the oath as the Prime Minister of India on 22 May 2004. He liberalized the Indian economy, allowing it to speed up development dramatically. In 2005, Singh's government introduced the Value added tax, replacing sales tax. In 2007, India achieved its highest GDP growth rate of 9% and became the second fastest growing major economy in the world. In 2007 and early 2008, the global problem of inflation impacted India. The Singh government has also continued the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, begun by his predecessor, Mr. Vajpayee.
Dr. Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh's Government has continued the pragmatic foreign policy that was started by P.V. Narasimha Rao and continued by Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited India which was followed by Singh's visit to Beijing in January 2008. As of 2010, the People's Republic of China is the second biggest trade partner of India. Relations with Afghanistan have also improved considerably, with India now becoming the largest regional donor to Afghanistan. He visited the United States in July 2005 initiating negotiations over the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. This was followed by George W. Bush's successful visit to India in March 2006.
Dr. Manmohan Singh

India held general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha April and May 2009, where congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won the mandate to lead the Lok Sabha. The Congress and its allies were able to put together a comfortable majority with support from 322 members out of 543 members of the House. The 2009 Indian general election was the largest democratic election in the world held to date, with an eligible electorate of 714 million. On 22 May 2009, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister and became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 to win re-election after completing a full five-year term.
Dr. Manmohan Singh

Awards & Honours
1952: University Medal for standing first in B.A. (Honors Economics) Punjab University. 1955: Wright Prize for Distinguished Performance (St. Johns College, Cambridge, U.K.) 1956 : Adam Smith Prize (University of Cambridge, U.K.) 1987: Padma Vibhushan (President of India) 1993: Finance Minister of the Year (Asiamoney & Euromoney) 1994: Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award (199495) 1997: Lokmanya Tilak Award 1999: H.H. Kanchi Sri Paramacharya Award for Excellence 2000: Annasaheb Chirmule Award 2002 : Outstanding Parliamentarian Award 2005: Top 100 Influential People in the World (Time) 2010 : World Statesman Award
INDIA IN WORLD
Largest producer in the world of milk, jute and pulses, Tea, Millet, Raw Sugar. Largest in Cell phone usage Largest in postal network Second in Population Second in Labor Force. Second largest cattle population. Second largest producer of Rice, Wheat, Sugarcane, Cotton yarn, Groundnuts and Tobacco,
INDIA IN WORLD
2nd Largest fruit and vegetable producer. 2nd Largest producer and the largest consumer of silk in the world. 2nd Largest in Arable Land and Irrigated Area. 2nd in Roadways total 3rd in Area - Water 3rd Producer of Coal (Hard) 3rd Producer of Castor
INDIA IN WORLD
4th Largest economy in the world in PPP terms 4th Producer of Cement, Wheat and Cotton. 4th Global Military Power. 4th in Railways total 4th in Internet Users 5th Producer of Egg(Hen) 5th in Oil consumption (2009 est.) 6th in Oil Imports 6th in Reserve of Foreign exchange & Gold (2010 est.) 6th in Electricity Production & Consumption
INDIA IN WORLD
7th in GDP Real Growth Rate (2010 est.) 7th in Land Area in World 8th Position in Electricity generated. 8th in Fish Catching 10th in World Badminton 12th in terms of nominal factory output 13th in services output. 13th in Imports (2010 est.) 16th in Natural Gas consumption 17th in Natural Gas Imports (2009 est) 17th in Industrial Product growth (2009 est.) 17th in Shipping Tonnage
INDIA IN WORLD
22nd in Natural Gas Production (2009 est.) 22nd in Exports (2010 est.) 24th in Oil Production (2009 est.) 26th in Natural Gas Proved Reserve (2010 ) 28th in Debt External (2010 est.) 41st in Governance (2011 est.) 41st /106 Suicide Rate (2010 est.) 42nd in Public Debt (2010 est.) 53rd in Economy (2011 est.) 68th/139 in Tourism (2011 est.)
INDIA IN WORLD
73rd in Personal Freedom (2011 est.) 73rd / 77: Best Place to be Mother (2010 est.) 85th/110 Per Capita GDP Ranking (2011 est.) 87th /178 in TI Corruption Perception Index (2011 est.) 88th in Education 90th in Enterprenurship & Opportunity (2011 est.) 95th in Health (2011 est.) 97th in Safety & Security (2011 est.)
INDIA IN WORLD
104th in Social Capital (2011 est.) 118th in Unemployment. (2010 est.) 119/169 : UN Human Development Index(2011) 122nd / 178 : Press Freedom Index (2010 est.) 135/153 in Vision of Humanity Global Peace Index (2011 est.) 162nd in FIFA world ranking (2011 est.) 164th GDP-Per Capita (2010 est.) 173rd in Literacy Total Population 205th in Inflation Rate (Consumer prices) 25% Population below poverty line (2007 est.)
INDIA IS ON RACE ARE YOU PART OF IT?
2012
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PRIME MINISTERS OF INDIA

PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

First Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

1st Prime Minister of India

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru

Second Prime Minister of India

Gulzari Lal Nanda

Third Prime Minister of India

Lal Bahadur Shastri

3rd Prime Minister of India

Lal Bahadur Shastri

3rd Prime Minister of India

Lal Bahadur Shastri

3rd Prime Minister of India

Lal Bahadur Shastri

3rd Prime Minister of India

Lal Bahadur Shastri

3rd Prime Minister of India

Lal Bahadur Shastri

Fourth Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

Indo-Pak War 1971

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

4th Prime Minister of India

Fifth Prime Minister of India

Morarji Ranchhodji Desai

5th Prime Minister of India

5th Prime Minister of India

5th Prime Minister of India

5th Prime Minister of India

Sixth Prime Minister of India

Chaudhary Charan Singh

6th Prime Minister of India

Chaudhary Charan Singh

6th Prime Minister of India

Chaudhary Charan Singh

Prime Minister of India

Prime Minister of India

Seventh Prime Minister of India

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi