Chandra Shekhar

Chandra Shekhar
8th Prime Minister of India
In office 10 November 1990 – 21 June 1991
President	R. Venkataraman
Deputy	Devi Lal
Preceded by	V. P. Singh
Succeeded by	P. V. Narasimha Rao
President of the Janata Party
In office 1977 (1977)–1988 (1988)
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Ajit Singh
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 1989 (1989)–2007 (2007)
Preceded by	Jagannath Chowdhary
Succeeded by	Neeraj Shekhar
Constituency	Ballia
In office 1977 (1977)–1984 (1984)
Preceded by	Chandrika Prasad
Succeeded by	Jagannath Chowdhary
Constituency	Ballia
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office 1962 (1962)–1977 (1977)
Personal details
Born	(1927-04-17)17 April 1927 Ibrahimpatti, United Provinces, British India (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India)
Died	8 July 2007(2007-07-08) (aged 80) New Delhi, India
Monuments	Jannayak Sthal
Political party	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) (1990 – 2007)
Other political affiliations	Congress Socialist Party (Before 1964) Indian National Congress (1964 – 1975) Independent (1975 – 1977) Janata Party (1977 – 1988) Janata Dal (1988 – 1990)
Spouse	Duja Devi
Children	2 sons (including Neeraj Shekhar)
Alma mater	Allahabad University
Signature

Chandra Shekhar (17 April 1927 – 8 July 2007), known as Jananayak, was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress.^[1] He was the first Indian Prime Minister who had never held any prior government office.^[2][3][4]

His government was formed with the fewest party MPs in the Lok Sabha.^[5][6] His government could not pass the budget^[7] at a crucial time when Moody had downgraded India, and it further went down after the budget was not passed, and global credit-rating agencies further downgraded India from investment grade, making it impossible to even get short-term loans, and in no position to give any commitment to reform, the World Bank and IMF stopped their assistance. Shekhar had to authorise mortgaging of gold to avoid default of payment, and this action came in for particular criticism, as it was done secretly in the midst of the election.^[8][9][10] The 1991 Indian economic crisis and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi plunged his government into crisis. But according to Subramanian Swamy, finance minister Yashwant Sinha mortgaged gold reserves without informing the Commerce Ministry (which was headed by Swamy).^[11] But granting the permission for US military planes to refuel in Indian airports during the Gulf War improved the Prime Minister's image with the West.^[11][12]