Murli Manohar Joshi

Murli Manohar Joshi
File:Murli Manohar Joshi 2.jpg
Minister of Human Resource Development
In office 19 May 1998 – 22 May 2004
Succeeded by	Arjun Singh
Constituency	Rajya Sabha
Minister of Science and Technology
In office 19 May1999 – 22 May 2004
Succeeded by	Kapil Sibal
MP
Incumbent
Assumed office 2014
Preceded by	Sriprakash Jaiswal
Constituency	Kanpur
MP
In office 2009-2014
Preceded by	Dr. Rajesh Kumar Mishra
Succeeded by	Narendra Damodardas Modi
Constituency	Varanasi
MP
In office 1977–1980
Preceded by	Narendra Singh Bisht
Succeeded by	Harish Rawat
Constituency	Almora
Personal details
Born	(1934-01-05) 5 January 1934 Nainital, United Provinces, British India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse	Tarla Joshi
Alma mater	Allahabad University
Signature

Murli Manohar Joshi (born 1934) is an Indian politician, a leading member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of which he was the President between 1991 and 1993, and the current Member of Parliament for Kanpur. He later became the Union Human Resources Development minister in the National Democratic Alliance government. He is best known for his views on Hindu socio-politics and for his affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which he had been a pracharak.

Life and profession

Joshi was born on 5 January 1934, hailing from the Kumaon Hills region of Nainital northern India which today form a part of the state of Uttarakhand. Joshi had his early education in Chandpur, District Bijnore and Almora (currently part of Uttarakhand). He completed his B.Sc. from Meerut College and M.Sc. from Allahabad University. Here one of his teachers was Professor Rajendra Singh, who later became the RSS Sarsanghchalak. He did his doctorate from Allahabad University. The subject of his doctoral thesis was spectroscopy. He published a research paper in Physics in Hindi, which was a first of its kind. After completing his PhD, Joshi started teaching Physics at Allahabad 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 the Emergency period (1975–1977) in India, Joshi was in jail from 26 June 1975 until the Lok Sabha elections in 1977. He was elected Member of Parliament from Almora. When the Janata 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 the Bharatiya Janata Party or 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 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Joshi served as the Human Resource Development Minister in the cabinet.

Joshi is known to have been influenced by the life and work of Veer Savarkar, Golwalkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya. Joshi was a three-term M.P. from Allahabad before he was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections of May, 2004. He won election to the 15th Lok Sabha from Varanasi as 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 honored as "Proud Past Alumni" of Allahabad University by Allahabad University Alumni Association. He was a sitting MP from Varanasi and he vacated that seat for Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. He later contested from Kanpur and won from the constituency by a margin of 2.23 lac votes.

Support for the Ranvir Sena

In 2015, Cobrapost exposed many BJP leaders especially like Murli Manohar Joshi and C. P. Thakur alongside former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar associated with Ranvir Sena in Bihar Dalit massacres

Resources

• Police arrest right-wing Hindu leaders. TIM MCGIRK, The Independent. 9 December 1992.
• Court clears India's deputy PM. Maseeh Rahman, The Guardian, Saturday 20 September 2003.
• Minister wins Ayodhya reprieve. BBC. 20 September 2003.
• Tearing down the Babri Masjid. Mark Tully, BBC. 5 December 2002.
• Indian dismay over UN ranking. Satish Jacob, BBC. 24 July 2002.
• India targets cow slaughter. Jyotsna Singh, BBC 11 August 2003.
• Sustainable consumption is the need of the hour, says Murli Manohar Joshi. The Hindu. 15 January 2007.
• Sex education runs into trouble. BBC. 27 August 2007.
• Murli Manohar Joshi attacks Congress on N-deal, agrarian policies. Times of India. 6 March 2008
• Yoga institute celebrations. The Hindu. 19 February 2009.
• Joshi gets death threat from Indian Mujahideen. India Express. 12 April 2009.
• I won’t mind being Leader of Opposition: Murli Manohar Joshi. ANI. 17 May 2009.
• BJP probably failed to communicate its message: Joshi. The Hindu. 16 May 2009.
• "Advani's decision in BJP's interest: Murli Manohar Joshi". The Economic Times. 17 May 2009.
• Zee News exposes Murli Manohar Joshi demanding chopping of questions over Modi. Zee News. April 2014.

External links

• http://drmurlimjoshi.blogspot.com/ Murli Manohar Joshi's blog
• BJP profile of M.M. Joshi