Kisan Diwas 2020: Lesser Known Facts About Chaudhary Charan Singh On His Birth Anniversary

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Every year 23 December, the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the fifth Prime Minister of India is observed as the National Farmers' Day. Chaudhary Charan Singh is known widely for making policies that would benefit the farmers. His birthday is observed not only to remember him for his phenomenal work but also to highlight the importance of farmers in the country. On this day, we are here to tell you about Chaudhary Charan Singh.

1. Chaudhary Charan Singh was born on 23 December 1902 in a Jat farmer family. He belonged to the village of Noorpur in the Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh.

2. Since his childhood days, he was a good student and earned the Master's of Arts degree in 1925 as well as the law degree in the year 1926.

3. After completing this law degree, he practiced as a lawyer at the Civil court in Ghaziabad district in 1928.

4. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he entered into politics in 1930 after former urged people to come together for the non-violence and non-cooperation movement during the freedom struggle of India.

5. He was an active member of the Indian National Congress from the Meerut district until 1931.

6. In February 1937, he won the elections from the Chhaprauli legislative assembly. At that time he was only 34 years old.

7. On 31 March 1938, with the help of The Hindustan Times, he published the issues of the farmer and introduced the Agriculture Produce Market Bill in the Assembly. The bill was all about protecting the farmers' rights and interests.

8. In 1967, Chaudhary Charan Singh quit the Indian National Congress and went on to form his own new party named Bhartiya Kranti Dal. In the same year he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh with the help of Ram Manohar Lohiya and Raj Narain.

9. In 1970, he was re-elected as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. But in 1975, he was jailed by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. Since Indira Gandhi had imposed Emergency, she arrested all her opponent politicians.

10. When in 1977, Indira Gandhi lost the elections and the Janata Government came into power, Chaudhary Charan Singh went on to serve as the Deputy Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister under the government headed by Morarji Desai.

11. However, this truce didn't last long and hence Singh was asked to resign in June 1978 after disagreement with Desai. He was then once again sworn in as the Deputy Prime Minister in January 1979. Soon the government was reduced to a minority and Singh was sworn in as the new Prime Minister on 28 July 1979.

12. He had received support from Indira Gandhi's party and Yashwant Rao Chawan's Congress Socialist Party. But Indira Gandhi withdrew her support right before Singh was about to confirm his majority in the Loksabha.

13. Soon Singh resigned from the post on 20 August 1979 thus becoming the only Prime Minister to never win the parliament's confidence.

14.Singh then continued to serve as the Prime Minister till January 1980.

15. On 29 November 1985, Singh suffered a stroke and couldn't recover from it despite the treatments. He was declared dead at 2:35 am due to the cardiovascular collapse.