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HomeThePrint ProfileMorarji Desai scolded Vajpayee for drinking alcohol. He was India’s puritan PM

Morarji Desai scolded Vajpayee for drinking alcohol. He was India’s puritan PM

Morarji Desai’s ideas were as unconventional as his way of living. One of the most talked-about was his promotion of auto-urine therapy, to which he often attributed his longevity.

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Morarji Ranchhodji Desai had barely stepped out after 18 months in jail during the Emergency when he famously dismissed Indira Gandhi as “a spoiled girl.”  A year later, at 81, he became India’s first non-Congress Prime Minister.

“And ever since I was released, I met the people and had a feeling that we would get what we got. It was a wrong notion that she (Indira Gandhi) was loved and respected as a mother. It was only authority that made people respect her,” Desai told journalist Elaine Grand of Thames TV, just a week into office.

Morarji Desai died at the age of 99, on 10 April 1995 in Mumbai.

His rise to power is a saga of missed opportunities. After the death of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Morarji Desai and Lal Bahadur Shastri were seen as the primary contenders for the post, which eventually went to the latter. Desai was seen as an obvious choice for PM after Shastri’s unexpected death in Tashkent in 1966, but it was Indira Gandhi who came to power instead.

In 1967, when Gandhi returned to the PM’s post with a reduced majority, Desai, who had a solid support base within the Congress, once again challenged her. This led to a compromise, with Desai becoming the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister — just a step short of clinching the high chair.

Desai, however, remained persistent. In 1969, he united with Congress critics to oust Indira Gandhi, which led to a split within the party. Gandhi formed the Indian National Congress (Requisitionists) faction, while Desai joined the Indian National Congress (Organisation).

Then came the coup de grâce — his fifth and final attempt, where he led an anti-corruption movement in his home state of Gujarat in 1974. This campaign, combined with Jayaprakash Narayan’s mass movement in Bihar, a court verdict convicting Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractice in 1975, and the eventual declaration of the Emergency, set the stage for Desai’s rise in 1977.

“Morarji Desai was always a Prime Minister in waiting. He was an obvious choice for the high chair, given his experience and seniority. But the problem was that he never bowed down to anyone. When Shastri became PM, he was junior to Desai. Then came Indira Gandhi, with no experience,” said Swadesh Singh, a political science professor at Delhi University.

A true Gandhian 

Beyond the image of a civil servant-turned-freedom fighter and a shrewd politician, Desai was, at his core, an austere man. He was deeply influenced by Gandhian principles, and lived a life marked by discipline and simplicity. He reportedly became celibate at the age of 32, and maintained the image of a puritan – a teetotaler who never even consumed meat and spun his own yarn on a charkha.

Economist and former Minister of Law and Justice Subramanian Swamy recalled how angry Desai was after learning that Atal Bihari Vajpayee consumed alcohol at an event in New Delhi: “He (Desai) told Vajpayee that you went to the Japanese embassy and drank alcohol…He was a straight talker, an honest politician, and principled. He didn’t like anyone consuming alcohol around him.”

Morarji Desai’s ideas were as unconventional as his way of living. One of the most talked-about was his promotion of auto-urine therapy, to which he often attributed his longevity. He even wrote a book on the topic – Miracles of Urine Therapy.

Desai’s 1978 visit to the United States, aimed at mending India’s strained relationship with the country, became famous for this very reason. In an interview with CBSjournalist Dan Rather, the Indian Prime Minister advocated the virtues of urine therapy for nearly half-an-hour. “I drink five to eight ounces of urine every morning on an empty stomach,” he told an appalled Rather. Later dubbed the “network urine wars,” the event triggered a global media frenzy.

“Just like Gandhi, Desai experimented with several things and ideas. He resonated more with Gandhi than with the Right wing because his ideological background fell between the Centre and Left,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a political science professor at Delhi University.


Also read: Ayurveda is a perfect science: Morarji Desai


Genuine Non-Alignment 

Morarji Desai’s tenure as Prime Minister is remembered for improving India’s relations with neighbouring China and Pakistan. During his term, Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the Minister of External Affairs.

Desai is credited with restoring friendly ties with China and Pakistan and avoiding armed conflict. His foreign policy was based on non-alignment, and he also affixed the term  “genuine” to non-alignment in official diction. “We will have no special relations with one country,” he told Time Magazine in 1977, asserting that India didn’t intend to “annoy” its neighbours. “We will try to avoid hurting their feelings, but we will not do anything at the point of a gun or blackmail,” he stressed.

Morarji Desai was also awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan for his efforts toward peace-making and improving bilateral ties.

“The Pakistani foreign minister once told me that they didn’t expect as much help from Nehru as from me for making peace between the two nations,” Desai recalled in his autobiography, The Story of My Life.

Even the Mandal Commission, which changed India’s political landscape and brought reservation to the fore of Indian politics, was established by Desai’s Janata Party government in 1979.

Subramanian Swamy recalled how, when Desai was kept in solitary confinement during the Emergency, Indira Gandhi offered to free him in exchange for his support in the elections.

But Desai wanted nothing to do with her, said Swamy.

“He said to her: ‘I am still 80, and I can survive jail.’”

(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)

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1 COMMENT

  1. Really shame to call Shri morarji Desai as Gandhian?he was not a womaniser or rapiest like Muslim Anti Hindu Gandhi,he scolded vajipyee ji because vajipyee ji hate urine drinking, please don’t compare urine drinker Morarji Desai with vajipyee ji.

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