Chandra Shekhar Singh (17 April 1927 – 8 July 2007) was an Indian politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress as a stop gap arrangement to delay elections.He is the first Indian Prime Minister who has never held any Government office.His government was largely seen as a "puppet"and "lame duck" and the government was formed with the fewest party MPs in the Lok Sabha.His government could not pass the budget at a crucial time when Moody had downgraded India and it further went down after the budget was not passed and global credit-rating agencies further downgraded India from investment grade making it impossible to even get short-term loans and in no position to give any commitment to reform, the World Bank and IMF stopped their assistance. Chandrasekhar had to authorise mortgaging of gold to avoid default of payment and this action came in for particular criticism as it was done secretly in the midst of the election.The Indian economic crisis, 1991, and the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi plunged his government into crisis.
Chandra Shekhar died on 8 July 2007, a week after his 80th birthday. He had been suffering with multiple myeloma for some time and had been in the Apollo Hospital at New Delhi since May.
