History of India (Tashkent Declaration)

After 1972
Lal Bahadur Shastri had become Prime Minister in 1964 after Jawaharlal Nehru’s death and led India to victory in the 1965 Indo-Pak War. After coming back from Tashkent, he had asserted his power and had removed T.T. Krishnamachari as the finance minister and also removed Indira Gandhi from the cabinet. Shastri, a diminutive homespun leader, was highly respected as much for his impeccable manners and genuine humility as for his vast experience of both the Congress party and the government. Indira Gandhi was made the High Commissioner to the UK in 1966, where her two sons were also studying. Shastri initiated the Green Revolution (aimed at modernising and improving Indian agriculture) and the White Revolution (aimed at increasing milk production), both of which were larger than their OTL counterparts covering more states and having more funding than OTL. As a result, India became a major exporter of food grains and milk and milk products by the early 1980s. Shastri also initiated several economic, industrial and administrative reforms and loosened the hold of the licence raj. Small businesses sprang up in India and several sector were opened up to the Indian private sector spurring economic growth. Administrative reforms led to the complete reform of the colonial era bureaucracy and the police forces. India started opening up its foreign trade from 1976 in phases for certain sectors of the economy. India signed a free trade treaty with Nepal and Bhutan in 1979. Lal Bahadur Shastri remained as the Prime Minister of India till 23 December 1981 when he died of a heart attack. K. Kamraj had remained the president of the Indian National Congress till 1975. He was succeeded by Morarji Desai as the president of the INC who now succeeded Lal Bahadur Shastri as the Prime Minister of India at the age of 85. Morarji Desai was a staunch Gandhian, Desai was socially conservative, pro-business, and in favour of free enterprise reforms, as opposed to Jawaharlal Nehru's socialist policies. Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri and K. Kamaraj belonged to the right wing economic faction of the Congress party and with the continued prime ministership of Lal Bahadur Shastri, the left wing faction of the Congress party had essentially vanished by the late 1970s and the INC emerged as a centre-right party. Morarji Desai continued free-market reforms and ended the licence raj. He led the INC to win a comfortable majority in the 1982 General elections. He remained Prime Minister for two terms until 1992. He oversaw the complete transformation of the Indian economy into a free-market economy and the privatisation of several major government owned companies including the Indian Railways, whose privatisation had led to several major riots across the country by railway employees. India’s economy grew at an average rate of 6.3% during the 1970s and 8.4% during the 1980s. The economic growth and educational reforms led to a great reduction in communal tensions in the North Indian states.