In news– National Farmers’ Day is celebrated across the nation on December 23 to commemorate the birth anniversary of the fifth Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh.
About Chaudary Charan Singh-
- He was born into a middle-class peasant family in Uttar Pradesh on December 23, 1902.
- He served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 and 14 January 1980.
- Greatly influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he took an active part in the fight for independence.
- After that, his political career largely focused on socialism in rural India.
- He was active from 1931 in the Ghaziabad District Arya Samaj as well as the Meerut District Indian National Congress.
- Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the ‘Champion of India’s peasants’.
- He served twice as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, where he played a major role in shaping land reforms.
- He was behind several major farmer-forward Bills, including the Land Utilisation Bill of 1939 and the Debt Redemption Bill in 1939.
- While serving as agriculture minister in 1952, he led UP in its efforts to abolish the zamindari system.
- He also played a major role in drafting the UP Zamindari and Land Reforms Bill himself.
- He founded the Kisan Trust on 23 December, 1978, a non-political, non-profit making body with the aim of educating India’s rural masses against injustice, and fostering solidarity among them.
- The aims and objects of the Kisan Trust are to educate India’s rural masses against exploitation and injustice, to foster unity and solidarity among them
- He also founded Bharatiya Kisan Union (Indian Farmers’ Union) a non-partisan farmer’s representative organization in India.
- The western Uttar Pradesh branch of the union was founded on 17 October 1986 by Mahendra Singh Tikait.
- Chaudhary Charan Singh breathed his last on January 14, 1980 and a memorial dedicated to him was built at Raj Ghat and is called ‘Kisan Ghat.’
- The Union government decided to recognise Choudhary Charan Singh’s contribution to the agriculture sector and welfare of farmers by celebrating his birth anniversary as Kisan Diwas in 2001.
Source: News 18
