Murli Manohar Joshi

Murli Manohar Joshi (born 5 January 1934) is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of which he was the President between 1991 and 1993, and the former Member of Parliament for Kanpur parliamentary constituency. He was formerly a professor of Physics in Allahabad University. He was one of the key leader of the BJP. Joshi later became the Union Human Resources Development minister in the National Democratic Alliance government.[1] Joshi was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award, in 2017 by the Government of India.[2]

Murli Manohar Joshi
Minister of Human Resource Development
In office
19 May 1998 – 22 May 2004
Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded byS. R. Bommai
Succeeded byArjun Singh
Minister of Home Affairs
In office
16 May 1996 – 1 June 1996
Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded byShankarrao Chavan
Succeeded byH. D. Deve Gowda
Minister of Science and Technology
In office
19 May 1999 – 22 May 2004
Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee
Succeeded byKapil Sibal
Member of the Lok Sabha
In office
16 May 2014 – 23 May 2019
Preceded bySriprakash Jaiswal
Succeeded bySatyadev Pachauri
ConstituencyKanpur
In office
16 May 2009 – 16 May 2014
Preceded byRajesh Kumar Mishra
Succeeded byNarendra Modi
ConstituencyVaranasi
In office
1996-2004
Preceded bySaroj Dubey
Succeeded byRewati Raman Singh
ConstituencyAllahabad
In office
1977–1980
Preceded byNarendra Singh Bisht
Succeeded byHarish Rawat
ConstituencyAlmora
Member of the Rajya Sabha
In office
5 July 1992 – 11 May 1996
ConstituencyUttar Pradesh
Personal details
Born (1934-01-05) 5 January 1934
Almora, United Provinces, British India
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s)Tarla Joshi
Alma materUniversity of Allahabad (MSc, PhD)
AwardsPadma Vibhushan (2017)
Signature

Early life and education

Joshi was born on 5 January 1934, hailing from the Kumaon Hills region of Almora northern India which today form a part of the state of Uttarakhand. Joshi had his early education in Chandpur, District Bijnore and Almora . 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 Sanghchalak. 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.[3] 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,[4] 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 Babasaheb Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule 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.[5] 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 honoured 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.[6][7][8]

Awards and honours

References
  1. Debashish Mukerji (15 November 1998). "Our students don know India's problems (Interview with Murli Manohar Joshi)". The Week. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  2. "List of Padma awardees 2017". The Hindu. 25 January 2017.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 June 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. Patrick, French; French, Patrick (27 January 2011). India: A Portrait. Penguin Books Limited. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-14-194700-6.
  5. Joshi beats Mukhtar with big margin. Times of India. 16 May 2009
  6. "Constituency wise-All Candidates". Eciresults.nic.in. 17 May 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  7. "Allahbad University Alumni Association : Our Proud Past". archive.is. 10 November 2018. Archived from the original on 15 January 2008.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. "Our Proud Past". archive.is. 10 November 2018. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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