Popularly known as the champion of the peasants, Chaudhary Charan Singh’s birthday is marked as the National Farmer’s Day in India which falls on 23rd December of every year. He once said, “If the farmers of the country do well, the country, in turn, will do well”. These words hold true even today. He was the 5th Prime Minister of India, although that only lasted for about 24 days.
Apart from being the PM of India, he also served as the 5th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he worked as the finance minister of the country and was also the 3rd deputy PM of India.
He accomplished many things while he was in office. He enabled the villages in India to do well and to rise up to the level of towns and cities. He believed in the fact that villages and rural areas need more attention as they can often be ignored. If these places don’t advance, India will also be left behind in the world.
He was a staunch believer of equality for everyone and was one of the only politicians in India to stand up against Jawaharlal Nehru’s style of economic reforms. In doing so, he directly helped the agricultural sector of India. He was in favor of peasant proprietorship which would eventually help the farmers.
After rejecting Nehru’s policies, he formed his own party called Bhartiya Kranti Dal. He became the first non-congress CM of Uttar Pradesh in 1967. He became the CM again in 1970 and during the Emergency, he was jailed in 1975.
All his life, he relentless fought for the rights and responsibilities of poor farmers and those who were less fortunate. Apart from being a politician and an activist, he was also a writer. He wrote books like Abolition of Zamindari (1947), Agrarian Revolution in Uttar Pradesh (1957), Whither Co-Operative Farming (1956) and many more.
In true words, he was the champion of the poor and helped many get the rights they deserved.
