Murli Manohar Joshi

Murli Manohar Joshi
Minister of Human Resource Development
In office
19 May 1998 – 22 May 2004
Succeeded by Arjun Singh
Constituency Rajya Sabha
Minister of Science and Technology
In office
19 May1999 – 22 May 2004
Succeeded by Kapil Sibal
MP
Assumed office
2014
Preceded by Sriprakash Jaiswal
Constituency Kanpur
MP
In office
2009-2014
Preceded by Dr. Rajesh Kumar Mishra
Succeeded by Narendra Damodardas Modi
Constituency Varanasi
MP
In office
1977–1980
Preceded by Narendra Singh Bisht
Succeeded by Harish Rawat
Constituency Almora
Personal details
Born (1934-01-05) 5 January 1934
Nainital, United Provinces, British India
Nationality Indian
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s) Tarla Joshi
Alma mater Allahabad University
Religion Hinduism
Signature

Murli Manohar Joshi (born 1934) is an Indian politician, a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of which he was the President between 1991 and 1993, and the current Member of Parliament for Kanpur. He later became the Union Human Resources Development minister in the National Democratic Alliance government. He is best known for his views on Hindu socio-politics and for his affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which he had been a pracharak.[1]

Life and profession

Joshi was born on 5 January 1934, hailing from the Kumaon Hills region of Nainital northern India which today form a part of the state of Uttarakhand. Joshi had his early education in Chandpur, District Bijnore and Almora (currently part of Uttarakhand). He completed his B.Sc. from Meerut College and M.Sc. from Allahabad University. Here one of his teachers was Professor Rajendra Singh, who later became the RSS Sarsanghchalak. He did his doctorate from Allahabad University. The subject of his doctoral thesis was spectroscopy. He published a research paper in Physics in Hindi, which was a first of its kind.[2] After completing his PhD, Joshi started teaching Physics at Allahabad University.

Politics and activism

Joshi came in contact with the RSS in Delhi at a young age and took part in the Cow Protection Movement in 1953–54, in the Kumbh Kisan Andolan of UP in 1955, [3]demanding halving of land revenue assessment. During the Emergency period (1975–1977) in India, Joshi was in jail from 26 June 1975 until the Lok Sabha elections in 1977. He was elected Member of Parliament from Almora. When the Janata Party (which then included his party) came to power forming the first non-Congress government in Indian history, Joshi was elected General Secretary of the Janata Parliamentary Party. After the fall of the government, his party came out of Janata Party in 1980, and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party or the BJP. Joshi first looked after the Central Office as a General Secretary and later became Party Treasurer. As General Secretary of BJP, he was directly in charge of Bihar, Bengal and North-Eastern States. Later, when BJP formed a government in India under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Joshi served as the Human Resource Development Minister in the cabinet.

Joshi is known to have been influenced by the life and work of Veer Savarkar, Golwalkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya. Joshi was a three-term M.P. from Allahabad before he was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections of May, 2004. He won election to the 15th Lok Sabha from Varanasi as a BJP candidate.[4] He also served as the home minister for 13 days government in 1996. Joshi was appointed as Chairman of the Manifesto Preparation Board of the BJP in 2009. He was honored as "Proud Past Alumni" of Allahabad University by Allahabad University Alumni Association. He was a sitting MP from Varanasi and he vacated that seat for Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. He later contested from Kanpur and won from the constituency by a margin of 2.23 lac votes.[5][6][7]

Support for the Ranvir Sena

In 2015, Cobrapost exposed many BJP leaders especially like Murli Manohar Joshi and C. P. Thakur alongside former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar associated with Ranvir Sena in Bihar Dalit massacres[8]

References

  1. Debashish Mukerji (15 November 1998). "Our students don know India's problems (Interview with Murli Manohar Joshi)". The Week. Retrieved 2014-10-08.
  2. http://www.drmurlimanoharjoshi.in/evolutions.html
  3. India:A Portrait,pg.131
  4. Joshi beats Mukhtar with big margin. Times of India. 16 May 2009
  5. "Constituency wise-All Candidates". Eciresults.nic.in. 2014-05-17. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
  6. "Allahbad University Alumni Association : Our Proud Past". archive.is.
  7. "Our Proud Past". archive.is.
  8. Venkat, Vidya (18 August 2015). "Cobrapost film on Bihar Dalit massacres 'exposes' BJP links". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 September 2015.

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