Morarji Desai (original) (raw)

Morarji Desai (February 29, 1896 – April 10, 1995) joined the civil disobedience movement against British rule in India in 1930. He spent many years in jail during the freedom struggle. After independence was granted to India, he remained active on the political scene, and was elected to become the chief minister of Bombay in 1952. He was a member of the Congress party, but he resigned from it in 1969 to join the opposition. Before this, he had been appointed the deputy prime minister of India in 1967.

He was arrested in 1975, when Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency. When general elections were held in 1977, he led the opposition Janata Party to power. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the foreign minister in this government. Due to numerious defections from his government, he handed in his resignation 2 years later.

Morarji Desai was a strict follower of Gandhi's principles and a moralist. It is also rumoured that he used to drink his own urine (colloquially known as "Morarji Cola", a slang term/in-joke among the masses) to keep good health. He died at the age of 99.