Bharat Ratna to 5th PM Chaudhary Charan Singh , President Draupadi Murmu today honored two former Prime Ministers of India, PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, with the Bharat Ratna award posthumously. Along with them, scientist MS Swaminathan, known as the father of Green Revolution in India, and former Chief Minister of Bihar Karpoori Thakur were also awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously. This program was organized at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Bharat Ratna award ceremony was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. All the awards were received by their family members. PV Prabhakar Rao, son of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, received the award given to his father by the President.
At the same time, Jayant Chaudhary, grandson of Chaudhary Charan Singh and president of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), accepted the honor from Murmu. Swaminathan’s daughter Nitya Rao and Karpoori Thakur’s son Ramnath Thakur received the award from the President.
Chaudhary Charan Singh Ji’s Bharat Ratna is a recognition of his contributions to India’s development, particularly in agriculture and rural development. I am sure this honour will inspire future generations to uphold the values of hard work, dedication and public service that he… pic.twitter.com/ujx3naWMwX
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 30, 2024
All about Chaudhary Charan Singh
Charan Singh was born in 1902 in a middle-class farmer family in Noorpur, Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh. He graduated in science in 1923 and obtained a master’s degree from Agra University in 1925. Trained in law, Charan started his profession from Ghaziabad. He came to Meerut in 1929 and later joined Congress. He served as the 5th Prime Minister of India and 5th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Charan Singh was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly from Chhaprauli in 1937 and represented his constituency in the Assembly in 1946, 1952, 1962 and 1967. He became Parliamentary Secretary in the government of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant in 1946 and worked in various departments like Revenue, Medical and Public Health, Justice, Information etc. In June 1951, he was appointed as a cabinet minister of the state and given charge of the Justice and Information departments.
When elections were held in 1977, Chaudhary Charan Singh contested from Baghpat seat instead of Muzaffarnagar. In this election he registered a huge victory by 1,21,538 votes. Later he also sat on the chair of the Prime Minister of the country. One more thing, Vijay Pal Singh, who defeated Chaudhary Charan Singh in 1971, could not even save his bail in 1977. He had to be satisfied with just 8,146 votes. Then Saeed Murtaza of Lok Dal was successful in winning from Muzaffarnagar seat.
Chaudhary Charan Singh led a very simple life and in his spare time he used to read and write. He wrote many books and booklets including ‘Abolition of Zamindari’, ‘Poverty in India and its Solution’, ‘Land for Farmers’, ‘Prevention of Deviation of Holdings Below a Certain Minimum’, ‘Co-operative Farming ‘X-Rad’ etc. are prominent.
Singh suffered a stroke on 29 November 1985. He could not completely recover from the condition despite being treated the following March at a hospital in the US. At 11:35 p.m. (IST) on 28 May 1987 doctors were called for to his residence in New Delhi, after his respiration was found “unsteady”.