Morarji Desai -Facts File
1-Morarji Desai was the first Prime Minister to head India’s first non-Congress Government.
2-Morarji Desai, also known as Nishan-e-Pakistan (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and the Prime Minister of India from 1977 to 1979.
3-He held important posts in the Government of India such as Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India.
4-Morarji Desai remains the only Indian national to be conferred with Pakistan’s highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, which was conferred on him by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990.
5-Morarji Desai was born at Bhadeli village, Bulsar district in the Bombay Presidency (now in Gujarat) on 29 February 1896, the oldest of eight children.
6-Morarji Desai went on indefinite hunger strike on 12 March 1975 to support Nav Nirman movement of Gujarat.
7-Morarji Desai was selected by the Janata alliance, later Janata Party as their parliamentary leader, and thus became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.
8-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
9- In retirement, he lived in Mumbai and died in 1995 at the age of 99.
10-Morarji Desai was a strict follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s principles and a moralist. He was a vegetarian both by birth and by conviction.
11-Morarji Desai married Gujraben in 1911, at the age of 15
12-He is survived by his son Kanti Desai, and grandsons Jagdeep and Bharat Desai.