Lucknow: A Hindutva icon, one of the tallest non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBC) leaders of Uttar Pradesh, and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) answer to rising caste politics in the state. This is how Kalyan Singh’s colleagues remember the former Uttar Pradesh CM, who had helmed the state when ‘kar sevaks’ demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya 28 years ago.
The veteran BJP leader, who was the party’s first CM in Uttar Pradesh, died at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences on Saturday after a prolonged illness. He was 89.
Singh, who was known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) choice to counter rising caste politics in the Hindi heartland belt, belonged to the Lodh community, which comprises about seven per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s population and dominates several districts of the western part of the state.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior BJP leader in Uttar Pradesh, who was close to Singh, said, “Although PM Modi calls himself an OBC leader, our first prominent OBC leader was Kalyan Singh. He was a non-Yadav OBC who had immense connection not only among Lodhs, but also among other OBC castes such as Kumhars, Kashyaps, Kurmis, Mauryas, Telis, and Sahus.”
During the late 1980s, when caste-based politics had heated up following the Mandal Commission report, BJP’s L.K. Advani led an aggressive Hindutva campaign, but it was Singh who took it to new heights in the country’s Hindi-speaking belt, BJP leaders say. Singh personified the BJP-RSS’ blend of caste and Hindutva, which helped the saffron party come to power in Uttar Pradesh.
The above-mentioned BJP leader said, “Kalyan Singh was more popular than even Mulayam Singh Yadav among the OBCs in the 1990s. He had a hold on at least 20 per cent of the state’s population. With this 20 per cent, and almost 15 per cent of the upper caste vote, the BJP came to power twice in the 1990s.”
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Teacher from Atrauli, Hindutva mascot
Singh was born in Atrauli town of Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district and was initially a teacher of social sciences at the Raipur inter-college of Atrauli.
He first became an MLA in 1967, winning from the Atrauli assembly constituency on a Bharatiya Jana Sangh ticket, and held on to the constituency with an iron grip until 1980, when Congress’ Anwar Khan defeated him. Five years later, he was back as an MLA from the same constituency.
Rajendra Tiwari, a UP BJP leader and Singh’s close aide, told ThePrint, “The BJP’s Ram Mandir movement gained momentum in the 1980s when Kalyan emerged as a Hindutva mascot. After the BJP won the 1991 assembly poll with a clear majority, he was the preferred choice as CM. During his reign, there was zero tolerance for crime. Goons were either underground or in jail.”
Party sources say Singh is remembered as someone who ran an efficient administration while always expressing strong support for the agitation to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
When the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the BJP announced their ‘kar seva’ for the Ram Mandir, Singh submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court promising to ensure that there will be no damage to the structure. At the same time, he had denied permission to the police to open fire at the kar sevaks, even as the situation went out of hand.
In an interview to The Hindustan Times in August last year, Singh said, “I wish to die after watching the temple come up at Ayodhya and then wish to be reborn in the temple town.”
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court last year acquitted all 32 accused, including Singh, in the Babri Masjid demolition case citing lack of evidence.
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Defections and home-comings
The demolition of the Babri Masjid gradually altered the political situation in Uttar Pradesh with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Kashiram’s Bahujan Samaj Party forging an alliance to halt the BJP in its tracks.
In 1997, however, the BJP came back to power, this time, in an alliance with the BSP, and Singh became the CM once again, though his hold on the BJP’s state unit started loosening.
In 1999, Singh walked out of the BJP due to internal party rivalries and founded his own outfit, the Rashtriya Kranti Party. He returned to the BJP in 2004, but quit again in 2009 saying he was “humiliated and insulted”.
Singh said he would campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. His son, Rajveer Singh, too joined the Samajwadi Party. Singh was elected as MP that year from the Etah constituency as an independent.
In 2014, he joined the BJP again amid the ‘Modi wave’ in national politics. His son, Rajveer, was elected as a BJP MP in 2014 from Singh’s erstwhile constituency of Etah, whereas Singh himself was appointed as Rajasthan governor the same year.
Speaking to ThePrint, I.P. Singh, former state BJP minister who is now a SP leader, said, “Kalyan was the tallest OBC leader but he was continuously humiliated and neglected by the top BJP leadership. I asked him why he quit the BJP. He said ‘Ganga mai paani bahut beh chuka hai.’ He wanted to say that a lot had happened against him in the party. He later joined BJP but never got the same respect again. He was not even invited to the Ram Mandir bhoomi pujan last year.”
Those close to Singh say, throughout his political journey, the one moment which he considered as defining was the fall of the Babri Masjid on 6 December, 1992.
A close relative of the Singh family told ThePrint, “He was also very happy with the Supreme Court’s decision in favour of the Ram janmabhoomi. He was happy when all the 32 accused, including himself, were acquitted.”
“While talking to us about it, he would say ‘now I can die in peace’,” the relative added.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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