Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi reeks of decency when he speaks his high-brow mind. He is a thinking leader, who infused his mallow wisdom into the strategies for developing human resources during his stint as Union HRD minister in NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a towering visionary, whose approach to development is second to none.

Joshi is a proponent of Self Reliant Development Model along with his innate lover for the rich cultural heritage of India. He professed a nuclear India. An acclaimed Parliamentarian and fastidious academician, he addressed several conferences on Self Reliant Development Model throughout the country.

 

Today, Dr. Joshi has come to epitomize the resurgent India's yearning for self-assertion. He is an ardent advocate of a non-exploitive, egalitarian world order. One is struck by the basic continuity and consistency of Dr. Joshi's approach to politics and to life over the past half a century. His deep commitment to the Indian values only makes him more concerned for the weak and deprived. He has stood for combining effective leadership with broad participation to bring about a radical transformation in contemporary social order. To top it all, Dr Joshi's Charismatic leadership and his exceedingly clear sense of history has made his the darling of the masses.

 

For Dr. Joshi politics is not a goal in itself. It is a mission. It is a means to serve. It is an instrument of change and vitality -- to make India self-reliant, strong and a proud world leader.

 

Dr. Joshi foresees a modern, strong and vibrant India. Since early days he has been advocating to make India N-capable. Unperturbed, he championed the cause of the downtrodden, although at times he had to remain behind bars. He was arrested several times as Jan Sangh leader while mobilizing public opinion and leading agitations.

 

Early years

  Dr Joshi was born in Delhi on 5 January 1934. His father, an engineer with Central Public Works Department, hailed from Kumaon Hills region of northern India, which today forms a part of the state of Uttarakhand. His father died when Joshi was just an infant of 24 days. He was brought up by his mother and maternal grand mother who lived in Chandpur district in Bijnore. It was they who inculcated into him values of Indian culture and heritage and initiated him into it. Joshi’s early education was at Chandpur and Almora, currently part of Uttarakhand. He completed his B.Sc. from Meerut College and M.Sc. from Allahabad, where he came into contact with various political leaders. In a rare academic feat, Dr Joshi did his doctorate from Allahabad University and wrote his doctoral thesis on Spectroscopy. He was awarded Ph.D for this thesis as consequence of which Joshi joined as a lecturer of physics in Allahabad University. Joshi also published a research paper in Physics in Hindi, which was a first of its kind.

Ideologies germinate

  Now Joshi was growing into a man of ideologies. To mention a few agents that worked wonder to hone Joshi's ingrained intellect was Tilak's Gita Rahasya, which influenced him tremendously. Moreover, noted RSS leaders like Guruji Golwalker, Deendayal Upadhyaya and Prof Rajendra Singh were the key players who helped Dr Joshi get a direction in political thinking. Writings of Vivekananda and Aurobindo too played their part in shaping his ideology.

Early ladder of his political career

  Dr Joshi is today a man of the masses and the seeds for this were sown quite early in his life. At a tender age of 10, he joined RSS in 1944 in Delhi and soon turned into an activist participating in various social service and movements. He also participated as a soldier in the Kisan Andolan of UP demanding the enhanced land revenue. Earlier he had joined Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in 1949 and later in 1957 joined the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. He was All India General Secretary of ABVP in early fifties. He was Organising Secretary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Allahabad and Zonal Organising Secretary in Uttar Pradesh. He also functioned as secretary, treasurer and vice president of UP Jan Sangh. One of his remarkable work as a fledging leader during this time was that he was arrested while protesting the ban on RSS.

Joshi braces for an innings

  During the Emergency (1975-1977) in India, Dr. Joshi was incarcerated on 26 June, 1975 at 6 am, the first to be taken into custody. He remained in jail until the Lok Sabha elections in 1977. He was elected Member of Parliament from Almora, and the Janata Party (which then included his party) came to power. It was the first non-Congress government in Indian history. Dr. Joshi was elected General Secretary of the Janata Parliamentary Party. After fall of the government, he withdrew from Janata Party in 1980, and joined the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the new party Dr. Joshi performed as General Secretary and later became its Treasurer. Later he was appointed General Secretary of BJP again and he was in charge of Bihar, Bengal and North-Eastern States.
But the time had come for Joshi to prove himself as a leader and visionary. People recognized BJP, which came to power with its most adorable pillar Atal Bihari Vajpayee becoming prime Minister. Vajpayee chose Dr. Joshi as the Human Resource Development Minister in the cabinet. As Joshi was going to brace for his maiden innings in this portfolio, among other things, he slashed the fees at IIMs (Indian Institute of Management) by almost 80% although he had to bear the brunt of critics, who viewed his decision as an unnecessary meddling in the affairs of the IIMs.

He mattered in BJP

  As the General Secretary of the BJP in the eighties, Dr. Joshi was largely responsible for formulating economic policy, as enshrined in the Swadeshi Agenda, which the party adopted at its Gandhinagar session in 1987. As the All India President of BJP, Dr. Joshi led the historic Ekta Yatra from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, to unfurl the National Flag at Lal Chowk on the Republic Day in 1992. Juxtaposed with this was the Ayodhya movement, which rechristened the course of Indian politics in the nineties. Dr. Joshi played an active role in this movement for the construction of Ram Mandir at the Ram Janma Bhumi.  He was arrested for this on 8 December 1992 and was detained at Mata Tila, UP along with LK Advani and Ashok Singhal. This incident also led to his arrest for second time in 1993. This time he was detained at Pipri, UP. This is just the tip of the iceberg of Joshi's jail experience.