State of the Union
Aquestion by a distinguished former diplomat — do chief ministers necessarily make good prime ministers? — provoked a think, and a look back at all Indian PMs from 1947 till now.
India’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, had never served as the chief minister of any province in British India though the Congress had formed governments in eight out of 11 provinces after winning the winter 193637 provincial polls convincingly. The only executive post Pandit Nehru held before becoming PM was mayor of Allahabad.
Not having been a CM was never a handicap or liability to the man whose vision laid the foundations of both, the idea of India and the modern Indian republic as it stands today.
Our second PM, Lal Bahadur Shastri, again didn’t serve as a chief minister though he did serve as a minister in Uttar Pradesh right after Independence. Though his tenure was shortlived, cut short by his tragic death in Tashkent in January 1966, he left an indelible imprint.
The third Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, undoubtedly the most powerful personality since Independence, again didn’t serve as a chief minister in any state. She led India as Prime Minister for 15 long years and changed the map of South Asia forever. After the wave of nations attained freedom from colonial rule in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, her tenure was the first instance of a new cartographic dynamic — the birth of Bangladesh.
India’s fourth PM, and the first from Gujarat, Morarji Desai, had served as chief minister 7of the erstwhile Bombay state. He had long years of administrative experience both in the state and Central governments before becoming PM. However, he was not able to hold the disparate elements of a hastily-constructed Janata Party together, and he lasted a bare 28 months.
His home minister, Charan Singh, succeeded Desai as our fifth PM. Charan Singh was chief minister of UP twice between 1967 and 1970, had rich administrative experience in the state prior to becoming CM. But his tenure as PM was just a five-and-a-half month footnote in history.
Rajiv Gandhi succeeded his mother in October 1984 as India’s sixth PM (his mother Indira, the third PM, did three tenures). He had no administrative experience whatever, and was a pilot with Indian Airlines who got drafted into politics by another accident of history — a plane accident that killed his brother Sanjay, Indira Gandhi’s chosen heir.
This lack of administrative experience didn’t stop Rajiv Gandhi from becoming India’s most forward-looking and progressive PM, who laid the foundations of many initiatives, particularly in science and technology, that shaped modern India ever since his 19841989 tenure.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh, was UP chief minister in 1980-82, succeeded him as PM. V.P. Singh’s 11-month tenure as PM was an unmitigated disaster that saw a wave of self-immolations sweep university and college campuses across India.
After him came Chandra Shekhar, a grassroots politician who held no administrative office before becoming