PM Modi pays tribute to Morarji Desai

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday paid tributes to India's first non-Congress prime minister Morarji Desai, and said his role in resisting the Emergency and steering the nation in the period after that was exemplary.

Desai, a veteran lawmaker who held many ministerial portfolios at the Centre and was also chief minister of erstwhile Bombay State, was born on February 29 in 1896.

His birth year being a leap year, tributes are often paid to him a day before.

Modi tweeted, "Tributes to our former PM Shri Morarjibhai Desai. He is remembered for his contribution to India's freedom struggle and as an outstanding administrator. His role in resisting the Emergency and steering the nation in the period after that is also exemplary."