NEW DELHI: Vishwanath Pratap Singh, 58, the main Indian opposition ¢Janata Dal’ President and convener of the opposition umbrella organization ¢National Front’ had quit ruling Congress (1) and his parliamentary seat in 1987 and formed Jan Morcha people’s organization along with other expelled Congressmen to fight corruption in the Government.
He held the crucial portfolios of finance and defense in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet after the party came to power in 1984. He gained popularity following his tax raids against major industrial houses, the hiring of the Fairfax Detective Agency for investigating nonresident Indian accounts and near thing of the payoffs in the purchase of Bofors’, the Swedish guns, by the Indian Government.
He had first shot into fame as the Chief Minister of one of the largest and most populated Indian state Uttar Pradesh in 1980, when he resigned from this post assuming moral responsibility for his failure to tackle the ‘dacoit’ menace in the state.
Pledging itself to “rectify elitist aberrations in the educational system”, The National Front says it will revise the education policy and give urgent attention to the universalization of elementary education.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 24, 1989
