Murli Manohar Joshi

Not to be confused withManohar Joshi.

Murli Manohar Joshi
Minister of Human Resource Development
In office 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	S. R. Bommai
Succeeded by	Arjun Singh
Minister of Home Affairs
In office 16 May 1996 – 1 June 1996
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Shankarrao Chavan
Succeeded by	H. D. Deve Gowda
Minister of Science and Technology
In office 19 March 1998 – 21 May 2004
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Succeeded by	Kapil Sibal
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 16 May 2014 – 23 May 2019
Preceded by	Sriprakash Jaiswal
Succeeded by	Satyadev Pachauri
Constituency	Kanpur,Uttar Pradesh
In office 16 May 2009 – 16 May 2014
Preceded by	Rajesh Kumar Mishra
Succeeded by	Narendra Modi
Constituency	Varanasi,Uttar Pradesh
In office 1996—2004
Preceded by	Saroj Dubey
Succeeded by	Rewati Raman Singh
Constituency	Prayagraj,Uttar Pradesh
In office 1977–1980
Preceded by	Narendra Singh Bisht
Succeeded by	Harish Rawat
Constituency	Almora,Uttarakhand
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office 5 July 1992 – 11 May 1996
Constituency	Uttar Pradesh
Personal details
Born	(1934-01-05)5 January 1934 Nainital,Uttrakhand
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse	Tarla Joshi
Education	BSc,MSc,PhD
Alma mater	University of Allahabad
Awards	Padma Vibhushan(2017)
Signature

Murli Manohar Joshi(born 5 January 1934) is an Indian politician. He is a member of theBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) of which he was the President between 1991 and 1993. Joshi is the formerMember of ParliamentfromKanpurLok Sabhaconstituency.He is a former professor of physics inUniversity of Allahabad.He is one of the senior most leaders of the BJP and one of the founding members. Joshi later became the UnionHuman Resources & Development Ministerin theNational Democratic Alliancegovernment.Joshi was awardedPadma Vibhushan,the second-highest civilian award, in 2017 by theGovernment of India.Joshi has been a member ofRSSsince his college days.

Background and personal life

Joshi was born inDelhion 5 January 1934. His family hails fromAlmorainKumaonregion, which is now part of theUttarakhandstate. His father's name was Manmohan Joshi. The family belongs to theBrahmincommunity. In 1956, Joshi was married to Tarla Joshi, a lady of his own community and similar family background, in a match arranged by their families in the usual Indian way. The lifelong marriage has proven entirely harmonious and conventional. The couple are the parents of two daughters, Nivedita and Priyamvada.

Education

Joshi had his early education inChandpur,district Bijnorand inAlmora,from where his family hails. He completed his B.Sc. fromMeerut Collegeand M.Sc. fromAllahabad University.In Allahabad, one of his teachers wasProfessor Rajendra Singh,who later became theSarsanghchalakof theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Joshi did his doctorate in physics atAllahabad University.The subject of his doctoral thesis wasspectroscopy.He published a research paper in Physics inHindi,which was a first of its kind.After completing his PhD, Joshi started teaching physics atAllahabad 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,demanding halving of land revenue assessment. During theEmergency period(1975–1977) in India, Joshi was in jail from 26 June 1975 until theLok Sabhaelections in 1977. He was elected Member of Parliament fromAlmora.When theJanata 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 theBharatiya Janata Partyor 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 underAtal Bihari Vajpayee,Joshi served as the Human Resource Development Minister in the cabinet.

In December 1991, Joshi held ayatra,theEktaYatra,intended to signal that BJP supported national unity and opposedseparatist movements.It began on 11 December inKanyakumari,Tamil Naduand visited 14 states.The rally's final stop to hoist theIndian flagin Jammu and Kashmir on 26 January 1992 was considered unsuccessful, with minimal local participation.

Joshi is known to have been influenced by the life and work ofBabasaheb Ambedkar,Mahatma Jyotiba PhuleandDeendayal Upadhyaya.Joshi was a three-term M.P. fromAllahabadbefore he was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections of May 2004. He won election to the 15th Lok Sabha fromVaranasias a BJP candidate. 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 fromVaranasiand he vacated that seat for Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. He later contested fromKanpurand won from the constituency by a margin of 2.23 lac votes.

Awards and honours

The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Padma Vibhushan Award to Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, at a Civil Investiture Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on March 30, 2017

• Padma Vibhushan(2017)

External links

• Reflections...Murli Manohar Joshi's blog
• BJP profile of M.M. Joshi