First of all, some background. Since 1966, India's prime minister was Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. Selected for that role by the Indian National Congress's establishment, the "Syndicate", for little reason beyond her father being who he was, many believed she would serve as a gungi gudiya (dumb doll) and a puppet. She initially followed this role, but after the 1967 election, when her party suffered a beating, she veered to the left, supporting nationalizations of the banking system. This caused the Syndicate to kick her out of the party, but she walked out with enough MPs that she retained power. She recast herself as a populist woman of the people fighting against an elite. This message proved successful, and in 1971, she won a resounding victory. The next phase of her tenure began when East Pakistan rebelled against rule by West Pakistan, and as refugees fled the warzone for India, Indira Gandhi chose to declare war against Pakistan. The subsequent war ended in a victory as Bangladesh successfully won its independence with India's help. Pakistan was forever broken in two. In the wake of this victory, she proved immensely popular. However, when the economy stumbled in 1973, her popularity crashed. Opposition to her grew and in 1974, independence hero Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) formed an opposition movement against Indira Gandhi. This opposition movement, the Janata Morcha (People's Front), won elections in Gujarat, demonstrating them as a force to be reckoned with. In 1975, when Indira Gandhi was instructed to resign by the Supreme Court, JP called for a mass disobedience campaign; most notably, he called for the military to ignore her "illegal and unconstitutional" orders. This was the final straw for Indira Gandhi, who declared a state of emergency and delayed elections. She arrested her political opponents and censored newspapers. Her son Sanjay launched some projects of his own, such as forced sterilization campaigns and clearing impoverished people, and both of these projects impacted the average villager in a way that the bad economy never did. Millions of people were sterilized, in many cases against their will. This is perhaps the closest India has come to dictatorship since the Raj. This period ended in 1977, when Indira Gandhi decided to hold elections and free political prisoners. The elections ended with the opposition, now organized as the Janata Party (People's Party), winning a massive landslide. By its very nature, the Janata Party was a disorganized mess with only one unifying factor - opposition to Indira Gandhi. Nevertheless, JP, a broadly respected figure, was able to impose his choice of a leader, Morarji Desai, on it. Thus, Desai became Prime Minister. However, Desai was horribly inept in this role, letting disagreements play out with little interference and humiliating India on the public stage by advocating drinking urine. By 1979, the warring personalities and factionalism in the Janata Party finally led to its collapse. Charan Singh, a right-wing Gandhian, attempted to take power, ironically working with the Indian National Congress for this goal. However, twenty four days after Charan Singh took office, the Indian National Congress pulled its support from Charan Singh, and he advised the president to prorogue Parliament to avoid a vote of no confidence. However, in a textbook case of a parliamentary president protecting democracy, the president instead dissolved Parliament. Subsequently, the Indian National Congress won a landslide, and Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister once more until her tragic death in 1984. India became a dominant party system once more, with the Janata Party tenure little more than an interregnum.
JP's choice of Morarji Desai was a bad one, that much is certain. He could have chosen someone else, and in particular there were two other people he could have chosen. One was Charan Singh, the right-wing Gandhian I discussed above. That would be an interesting subject indeed. But another was Jagjivan Ram. He was a Dalit, and as a young kid, he rebelled against casteism. He also played a large role in organizing protests in the independence movement. Notably, he served as the youngest minister in the Nehruvian cabinet as Minister of Labour. He served many posts afterwards, and also in Indira Gandhi's cabinet. Notably, in 1969, Indira tried to get him elected as President of India, but the establishment refused to support his potential candidacy and so he did not run. During the Emergency, he held conflicting loyalties, but chose to support Indira because he feared imprisonment. But during the election, he bolted and created the Janata-aligned Congress for Democracy. He wished to become Prime Minister, but instead Desai was chosen for this role.
WI JP instead chose Jagjivan Ram for Prime Minister? Broadly, Ram supported socialist policies similar to Indira Gandhi's, so in that he would dash the hope of people like Charan Singh and probably cause a party schism. He was a more competent leader than Desai, certainly, so I think he could minimize the effects of a schism. Due to his platform's similarity with that Indira Gandhi, the party split of the Indian National Congress in 1978 (an entirely different split caused by ties to Sanjay Gandhi) could potentially cause the splitters to migrate towards the Janata Party and this could strengthen Ram's position. All of this could potentially mean that he could survive a vote of no confidence, and so with some luck his government could survive until 1982. If he could lead a cohesive party, he could give the Indian National Congress real opposition, making the Indian political system competitive earlier than OTL. However, there's still a good chance Congress wins in 1982, though naturally not by such a massive margine. On the other hand, in 1986, Jagjivan Ram died, and after his death, I'm not too sure what would occur to his party. I can imagine leadership would fall to Chandra Shekhar, an ultra-radical socialist known for his independent tendencies, but I can imagine he would lose many moderates in gaining the leadership. In that way, I'm unsure Ram's party would survive his death for very long.
JP's choice of Morarji Desai was a bad one, that much is certain. He could have chosen someone else, and in particular there were two other people he could have chosen. One was Charan Singh, the right-wing Gandhian I discussed above. That would be an interesting subject indeed. But another was Jagjivan Ram. He was a Dalit, and as a young kid, he rebelled against casteism. He also played a large role in organizing protests in the independence movement. Notably, he served as the youngest minister in the Nehruvian cabinet as Minister of Labour. He served many posts afterwards, and also in Indira Gandhi's cabinet. Notably, in 1969, Indira tried to get him elected as President of India, but the establishment refused to support his potential candidacy and so he did not run. During the Emergency, he held conflicting loyalties, but chose to support Indira because he feared imprisonment. But during the election, he bolted and created the Janata-aligned Congress for Democracy. He wished to become Prime Minister, but instead Desai was chosen for this role.
WI JP instead chose Jagjivan Ram for Prime Minister? Broadly, Ram supported socialist policies similar to Indira Gandhi's, so in that he would dash the hope of people like Charan Singh and probably cause a party schism. He was a more competent leader than Desai, certainly, so I think he could minimize the effects of a schism. Due to his platform's similarity with that Indira Gandhi, the party split of the Indian National Congress in 1978 (an entirely different split caused by ties to Sanjay Gandhi) could potentially cause the splitters to migrate towards the Janata Party and this could strengthen Ram's position. All of this could potentially mean that he could survive a vote of no confidence, and so with some luck his government could survive until 1982. If he could lead a cohesive party, he could give the Indian National Congress real opposition, making the Indian political system competitive earlier than OTL. However, there's still a good chance Congress wins in 1982, though naturally not by such a massive margine. On the other hand, in 1986, Jagjivan Ram died, and after his death, I'm not too sure what would occur to his party. I can imagine leadership would fall to Chandra Shekhar, an ultra-radical socialist known for his independent tendencies, but I can imagine he would lose many moderates in gaining the leadership. In that way, I'm unsure Ram's party would survive his death for very long.