Murli Manohar Joshi is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of which he was the President between 1991 and 1993. Joshi is the former Member of Parliament from Kanpur Lok Sabha constituency. He is a former professor of physics in University of Allahabad. He is one of the senior most leaders of the BJP and one of the founding members. Joshi later became the Union Human Resources & Development Minister in the National Democratic Alliance government. Joshi was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award, in 2017 by the Government of India. Joshi has been a member of RSS since his college days.