India has had 15 prime minsters since independence. 6 have served a full term or more. I wanted to reflect and assess their performance, especially with respect to their impact on the economy.
Unless I am missing somebody, here the fifteen:
Jawaharlal Nehru, Guljarilal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Morarjee Desai, Charan Singh, Rajeev Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandra Sekhar, Narasimhan Rao, Deve Gowda, IP Gujral, Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi.
Indira Gandhi was the third Prime Minister of India; not counting Guljari Lal Nanda who succeeded Lal Bahadur Shastri as an interim prime minister for about a month or so. She was installed by the “Congress Syndicate” in 1966 as a malleable person as a permanent Prime minister till the impending fourth general elections of 1967. Some in the Syndicate ( Syndicate was led by Morarjee Desai and SK Patil among others) had even called her as a Goongi Gudia (mute doll). Indira was anything but that as she thumbed her nose at the Syndicate and split the Congress Party into Congress (I) and Congress (O). She went on to win the election in 1967 and emerged as an undisputed leader of the Party and the country.
Jawahar Lal Nehru was the first prime minister of Independent India. He served from August 1947 till his death in May of 1964. He was Mahatma Gandhi’s chosen favorite. He spoke for all Indians when he gave his “Tryst with Destiny speech” on the eve of the independence: