HT THIS DAY: December 3, 1989 — VP Singh sworn in as 7th PM of India, Devi Lal is Deputy | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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HT THIS DAY: December 3, 1989 — VP Singh sworn in as 7th PM of India, Devi Lal is Deputy

Dec 02, 2021 07:48 PM IST

The swearing in of VP Singh as the Prime Minister ends the nearly 10-year-long Congress-1 rule at the Centre, which began on Jan. 15, 1980 when the Congress-I party was returned to power with a huge majority in the 1979 December elections, under the leadership of Mrs Indira Gandhi unseating the Janata Party-S Government led by Mr Charan Singh

New Delhi- Mr. Vishwanath Pratap Singh, leader of the National Front Parliamentary Party, was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of India by President R. Venkataraman in the Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 12.15 this afternoon, amidst scenes of wild enthusiasm and much goodwill from all present on the occasion.

A screengrab of the Hindustan Times on December 3, 1989.
A screengrab of the Hindustan Times on December 3, 1989.

The new Prime Minister sprang a surprise by naming Mr. Devi Lal, the Haryana Chief Minister, as the Deputy Prime Minister, who was the only other member of the Union Council of Ministers to take oath today (December 2).

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Both of them took oath in Hindi, with the President first reading the text of the oath in that language, apparently written in the Roman alphabet. The entire assembly at the somewhat small Ashoka Hall, jostling and sweating because of the unprecedented influx of media persons in particular, greeted the two leaders of the new Government with clappings.

The ceremony was watched by Vice President Shankar Daval Sharma, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, his erstwhile Cabinet colleagues, National Front chairman N. T Rama Rao, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, Karnataka Chief Minister Veerendra Patil, BJP leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee and L. K Advani, CPI-M general secretary F M. S. Namboodiripad, CPI general secretary C. Rajeshwar Rao and a large number of leaders of political parties as also newly-elected Members from the non-Congress-I parties. Mrs. Najma Heptullah, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, was also present.

The Prime Minister, who was mobbed by media persons after the ceremony was over in less than 10 minutes, said he would form the Cabinet within two or three days. In reply to another question, he said he would call Parliament before the specified period of 30 days to prove his majority in the Lok Sabha. He did not however, mention any date as such.

The swearing in of Mr V. P Singh as the Prime Minister ends the nearly 10-year-long Congress-1 rule at the Centre, which began on Jan. 15, 1980 when the Congress-I party was returned to power with a huge majority in the 1979 December elections, under the leadership of Mrs Indira Gandhi unseating the Janata Party-S Government led by Mr Charan Singh.

The 58-year-old Mr Singh, looking younger than his age, was clad in an achkan and pyjama and a Kashmiri cap on his head, a familiar sight in winter. His wife, Mrs Sita Kumari Devi, and son Ajeya Singh accompanied by his wife also watched the ceremony.

The National Front Prime Minister put up with the jostling and pushing at the adjacent hall where refreshments were served, but for at Icast one hour after the ceremony, mediapersons went on mobbing him and shooting all sorts of questions which he answered with characteristic grace and candour.

Also to be mobbed in the hall were Mr Rajiv Gandhi, Mr Buta Singh Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr L. K. Advani, cinestars Shatrughan Sinha and Raj Babbar, the last two had canvassed extensively for the former Opposition parties.

Mr Singh exchanged greetings with Mr Gandhi and leaders of his party and of other friendly parties and spent time with the President and the Vice President as also with BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee. But most of his time was taken up with the mediapersons whom the security staff failed to keep away from the new Prime Minister.

Mr V. P Singh is the eighth Prime Minister of India, taking Mrs Gandhi’s continuous terms of 1966-1977 and 1980-84 as two separate regimes. He is the third non-Congress-I Prime Minister, the other two being Mr Morarji Desai, who was in office from March 1977 to July 1979, and Mr Charan Singh, who remained in office from August 1979 to early January 1980. Mr Gulzarilal Nanda had acted as the Prime Minister on two occasions - in May 1964, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had passed away and again in 1966 when Mr Lal Bahadur Shastri had suddenly died at Tashkent in the Soviet Union on Jan. 11. Incidentally, all these leaders were originally Congressmen and the three non-Congress-I Prime Ministers had left the party or were expelled under various circumstances. Only two of them, Mr Desai and Mr Nanda, were from outside Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Singh does not have balmy days awaiting him in the weeks to come. For one thing, his Cabinet is not yet complete and it is still an open question if the parties supporting the National Front Government - the BJP and the Left parties - will join the Government. For another, Punjab problem still stares him in his face, and the price situation too is not something that can be swept under the carpet.

Mr Singh is believed to have gone into a conclave with party colleagues to tackle the problem of Cabinet formation, which by all expectations should be completed on Monday. It is not known what surprises he may spring that day like the one he did today by nominating ‘Tau” Devi Lal as the Deputy Prime Minister. It is not known if he would appoint another Deputy Prime Minister too, just as Mr Desai had with him Mr Jagjivan Ram and Mr Charan Singh. The latter had made Mr Yeshwantrao Chavan as the Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata Party-S and Congress-S coalition government which was in office till January 1980.

As already mentioned, this is independent India’s first multi-party National Government at the Centre and even with all goodwill for the new government, people at large are apprehensive about this experiment but want it nevertheless to succeed unlike in 1977 when the Morarji Desai Government was brought down by people belonging to his own party. That the task of Mr Singh will be an onerous one was indicated by the absence of Mr Chandra Shekhar from the swearing-m ceremony this afternoon. The “young Turk leader of yesteryears had not been too happy with the election of Mr V. P. Singh as the Prime Minister and he had, it must he admitted, made his views known publicly.

That the possibility of the BJP and the Left joining the ministry was still an open issue was indicated by Mr Singh’s reply to one question in the presence of Mr Vajpayce. he told a reporter that the formation of the government had only entered the first stage today, and questions about the second had to be awaited. Mr Vapayee. the popular leader with the media, ducked and stepped backward all smiles when another questioner asked what portfolio the B)P leader would be given when he joined the V. P Singh ministry.

The elevation of Mr Devi Lal to the post of Deputy Prime Ministership was seen as an expression of gratitude to him by Mr Singh, but it has its own political compulsion too. One of this b the fact that Mr Chandra Shekhar had proposed the Haryana Chief Minister’s name yesterday for the leadership of the parliamentary party. To that extent, it may be an attempt to mollify Mr Chandra Shekhar.

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