V. P. Singh
Encyclopedia
Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008) was the seventh Prime Minister of India
and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda
.
Royal Family of Manda to Raja
Bhagwati Prasad Singh of Daiya and was later adopted by Raja
Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh of Manda in 1936, whom he succeeded in 1941. V. P. Singh studied at Colonel Brown Cambridge School
, Dehradun
for five years, and entered local politics in Allahabad
during the Nehru era. He married Rani Sita Kumari, born 1936 in Deogarh, Udaipur, daughter of Rawat
Sangram Singh II of Deogarh on 25 June 1955. He soon made a name for himself in the state Congress Party
for his unfailing rectitude, a reputation that he would carry with him throughout his career.
Honored with “Proud Past Alumni" in the list of 42 members, from "Allahabad University Alumni Association", NCR, Ghaziabad (Greater Noida) Chapter 2007-2008 registered under society act 1860 with registration no. 407/2000.
as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1980, when the Congress came back to power after the Janata Party
interregnum. As Chief Minister, he cracked down hard on the dacoity, or banditry, problem, that was particularly severe in the rural districts of the south-west. He received much favourable national publicity when he offered to resign following a self-professed failure to stamp out the problem, and again when he personally oversaw the surrender of some of the most feared dacoits of the area in 1983.
's massive mandate in the 1984 General elections
, he was appointed to the pivotal post of Finance Minister
, where he oversaw the gradual relaxation of the license Raj as Rajiv had in mind. During his term as Finance Minister
, he oversaw the reduction of gold smuggling by reducing gold taxes and the excellent tactic of giving the police a portion of the smuggled gold that they found. He also gave extraordinary powers to the Enforcement Directorate of the Finance Ministry, the wing of the ministry charged with tracking down tax evaders, then headed by Bhure Lal. Following a number of high-profile raids on suspected evaders – including Dhirubhai Ambani
and Amitabh Bachchan
– Rajiv was forced to sack him as Finance Minister, possibly because many of the raids were conducted on industrialists who had supported the Congress financially in the past. However, Singh's popularity was at such a pitch that only a sideways move seemed to have been possible, to the Defence Ministry.
Once ensconced in South Block, Singh began to investigate the notoriously murky world of defence procurement. After a while, word began to spread that Singh possessed information about the Bofors
defence deal that could damage the Prime Minister's reputation. Before he could act on it, he was dismissed from the Cabinet and, in response, resigned his memberships in the Congress Party and the Lok Sabha
.
and Arif Mohammad Khan
, Singh floated an opposition party named the Jan Morcha
. He was re-elected to Lok Sabha
in a tightly contested by-election from Allahabad
, defeating Sunil Shastri. On 11 October 1988, the birthday of the original Janata
coalition's spiritual leader Jayaprakash Narayan
, the Janata Dal
was formed by merger of Jan Morcha
, Janata Party
, Lok Dal and Congress (S), in order to bring together all the centrist parties opposed to the Rajiv Gandhi government, and V. P. Singh was elected the President of the Janata Dal. A federation of the Janata Dal with various regional parties including the DMK
, TDP
, and AGP
, came into being, called the National Front
, with V. P. Singh as convener, N. T. Rama Rao
as President, and Leader of the Opposition
, P. Upendra as a General Secretary.
after coming to an electoral understanding with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party
and the Communist Left Front
that served to unify the anti-Congress vote. The National Front, with its allies, earned a simple majority in the Lok Sabha
and decided to form a government. The Left Front
(under E. M. S. Namboodiripad
and Indrajit Gupta
) and the BJP (under L. K. Advani) declined to serve in the government, preferring to support it from outside.
leader from Haryana
stood up and refused the nomination, and said that he would prefer to be an 'elder uncle' to the Government, and that Singh should be PM. This last part came as a clear surprise to Chandra Shekhar
, the former head of the erstwhile Janata Party
, and Singh's greatest rival within the Janata Dal. Shekhar, who had clearly expected that an agreement had been forged with Lal as the consensus candidate, stormed out of the meeting and refused to serve in the Cabinet.
Singh held office for slightly less than a year, from 2 December 1989 to 10 November 1990. During this time, Janata Dal came to power in 5 Indian states under Om Prakash Chautala
(Banarsi Das Gupta
, Hukam Singh
), Chimanbhai Patel
, Biju Patnaik
, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and Mulayam Singh Yadav
, and the National Front constituents in three more under M. Karunanidhi
, N. T. Rama Rao
, and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
. The Janata Dal also shared power in Kerala
under E. K. Nayanar
and in Rajasthan
under Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
(supporting the BJP government from outside).
). His government agreed to the demand for releasing militants in exchange; partly to end the storm of criticism that followed, he shortly thereafter appointed Jagmohan
, a controversial former bureaucrat, as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, on the insistence of the BJP who were concerned that an insufficiently hard line was being taken with the separatist elements in the state. Jagmohan subsequently inflamed opinion in the Valley when he ordered troops to fire on the funeral procession of the unofficial head of Kashmiri Islam, the Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq
, and had to be replaced by G. C. Saxena. In contrast, in Punjab
, Singh replaced the hardline Siddhartha Shankar Ray
as Governor with another former bureaucrat, Nirmal Kumar Mukarji
, who moved forward on a timetable for fresh elections. Singh himself made a much-publicised visit to the Golden Temple
to ask forgiveness for Operation Bluestar and the combination of events caused the long rebellion in Punjab to die down markedly in a few months. V. P. Singh also withdrew the IPKF from Sri Lanka and thwarted the efforts of Pakistan under Benazir Bhuto to start a border war.
in North India, and accordingly decided to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission
which suggested that a fixed quota of all jobs in the public sector be reserved
for members of the historically disadvantaged so-called Other Backward Classes. (Generally abbreviated OBCs, these were Hindu caste
s, and certain non-Hindu caste-like communities, which, though not untouchable, had been socially and educationally backward). This decision led to widespread protests among the upper caster youth in urban areas in North India. OBC reservation (less creamy layer) was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2008.
and the General Insurance Corporation stonewalled attempts by the Reliance group to acquire managerial control over Larsen & Toubro
. Sensing defeat, the Ambanis resigned from the board of the company. Dhirubhai, who had become L&T's chairman in April 1989, had to quit his post to make way for D. N. Ghosh, former chairman of the State Bank of India
.
agitation, which served as a rallying cry for several radical Hindu organisations, took on new life. The party president, L. K. Advani, with Pramod Mahajan
as aide, toured the northern states on a rath – a bus converted to look like a mythical chariot – with the intention of drumming up support. Before he could complete the tour by reaching the disputed site in Ayodhya, he was arrested on Singh's orders at Samastipur
on the charges of disturbing the peace and fomenting communal tension. The kār-seva (demolition of the mosque and construction of the temple) proposed by Advani on 30 October 1990 was prevented by stationing troops at the site. This led to the BJP's suspension of support to the National Front government. V. P. Singh faced the vote of confidence saying that he occupied the high moral ground, as he stood for secularism, had saved the Babri Masjid at the cost of power and had upheld the fundamental principles which were challenged during the crises; `What kind of India do you want?', he asked of his opponents of various shades in Parliament before losing the vote 142–346; only the portion of the National Front remaining loyal to him (see below) and the Left front supported him in the vote.
, H. D. Deve Gowda
, Maneka Gandhi
, Subodh Kant Sahay
, Om Prakash Chautala
, Hukam Singh
, Chimanbhai Patel
, Mulayam Singh Yadav
, Yashwant Sinha
, V. C. Shukla
, and Sanjay Singh
) to form the Samajwadi Janata Party / Janata Dal (Socialist)
. Although he had a mere 64 MPs, Rajiv Gandhi
, the leader of the Opposition, agreed to support him on the floor of the House; so he won a confidence motion and was sworn in as Prime Minister. 8 Janata Dal MPs who voted for this motion were disqualified by the speaker Rabi Ray
. He lasted only a few months before Gandhi withdrew support and fresh elections were called. He tried his best to get support till the last minute but failed.
during the election campaign, and he later retired from active politics. He spent the next few years touring the country speaking about matters related to issues of social justice and his artistic pursuits, chiefly painting. In the H. D. Deve Gowda
and I. K. Gujral governments of the late 1990s, Singh acted as a sort of elder statesman and adviser for the successors to the National Front coalition. In 1992, Singh was the first to propose the name of the future President K. R. Narayanan
as a (eventually successful) candidate for Vice President. Later the same year in December, he led his followers to Ayodhya to oppose the Kar seva proposed by L. K. Advani, and was arrested before he could reach the site; the Masjid was demolished by the kar sevaks a few days later. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1998 and ceased his public appearances.
. Ironically, his caste-based social justice policies had caused the rise of parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party
that were formed around caste identities; his own notion of populist socialism was thus squeezed out of the electoral marketplace. To remedy this, he relaunched the Jan Morcha
in 2006 with Raj Babbar
as President, and began the slow process of aggregation of smaller parties in the North with a view to contesting the 2007 Uttar Pradesh
elections.
by the Anil Ambani
-owned Reliance Industries and demanding adequate compensation. Later, Singh and CPI General Secretary A. B. Bardhan were again arrested on the U. P. border when they were proceeding to Dadri. However, Singh and Babbar were later able to evade the police, reaching Dadri on 18 August 2006, and ploughing the land in solidarity with the farmers.
(bone marrow cancer) and renal failure
at Apollo Hospital in Delhi
on 27 November 2008. He was cremated at Allahabad
on the banks of the River Ganges on 29 November 2008, his son Ajeya Singh
lighting the funeral pyre.
joined the Congress, and Singh's elder son Ajeya Singh (Ajeya Pratap Singh) took over the reins of the party in anticipation of the 2009 General elections. In March 2009 Ajeya Singh announced that Jan Morcha was to be merged with the Lok Janshakti Party
(LJP). Ajeya Singh and other members were inducted into the LJP and Ajeya was declared a Vice President of the party and its candidate from Fatehpur
Lok Sabha constituency. However, later, Ram Vilas Paswan
joined hands with the Samajwadi Party
(SP) of Mulayam Singh Yadav
and the RJD of Laloo Prasad Yadav, to form a Fourth front, and Mulayam Singh declared that the LJP would not contest any seats in UP. Ajeya Singh then contested as Jan Morcha candidate from Fatehpur, but lost to Rakesh Sachan
of the SP.
The Jan Morcha
was renamed as the National Jan Morcha in June 2009 and dedicated to farmer's causes and to forging a third alternative in national politics. A month later, the Jan Morcha merged with the Indian National Congress
.
Suma Josson
made another film on Singh titled One more day to live.
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Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda
Manda (Kingdom)
Manda is an erstwhile princely state of India, with lands located near Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Notably, the heir to the estate during was the Indian statesman, Raja Bahadur Vishwanath Pratap Singh....
.
Early life
He was born in the Rajput Gaharwar (Rathore)Rathore
The Rathore is a Suryavanshi Rajput clan same caste as Lohana. Their Kuldevi is Nagnechiya Mata and "Karani Mata". Rathores are originally from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. Rathores are historically considered the samurais of India...
Royal Family of Manda to Raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
Bhagwati Prasad Singh of Daiya and was later adopted by Raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh of Manda in 1936, whom he succeeded in 1941. V. P. Singh studied at Colonel Brown Cambridge School
Colonel Brown Cambridge School
Colonel Brown Cambridge School is an English medium residential school located in Dehradun, India. It was founded in 1926 with five students. It was the 1st all boys residential school in Dehradun....
, Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
for five years, and entered local politics in Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
during the Nehru era. He married Rani Sita Kumari, born 1936 in Deogarh, Udaipur, daughter of Rawat
Rawat Rajputs
Rawat Rajputs are a group of people who reside in Ajmer, Ballabgarh, Faridabad, Palwal Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh and Pali districts of Rajasthan, the area known as Magra-Merwara and the Kumaon division and Garhwal Divisions of Uttarakhand, India....
Sangram Singh II of Deogarh on 25 June 1955. He soon made a name for himself in the state Congress Party
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
for his unfailing rectitude, a reputation that he would carry with him throughout his career.
Honored with “Proud Past Alumni" in the list of 42 members, from "Allahabad University Alumni Association", NCR, Ghaziabad (Greater Noida) Chapter 2007-2008 registered under society act 1860 with registration no. 407/2000.
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
He was appointed by Indira GandhiIndira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1980, when the Congress came back to power after the Janata Party
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
interregnum. As Chief Minister, he cracked down hard on the dacoity, or banditry, problem, that was particularly severe in the rural districts of the south-west. He received much favourable national publicity when he offered to resign following a self-professed failure to stamp out the problem, and again when he personally oversaw the surrender of some of the most feared dacoits of the area in 1983.
Cabinet Minister for Finance and Defence
Called to the Centre following Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
's massive mandate in the 1984 General elections
Indian general election, 1984
General elections were held in India in 1984 soon after the assassination of previous Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, though the vote in Assam and Punjab was delayed until 1985 due to ongoing fighting....
, he was appointed to the pivotal post of Finance Minister
Finance minister
The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government.A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances...
, where he oversaw the gradual relaxation of the license Raj as Rajiv had in mind. During his term as Finance Minister
Finance minister
The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government.A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances...
, he oversaw the reduction of gold smuggling by reducing gold taxes and the excellent tactic of giving the police a portion of the smuggled gold that they found. He also gave extraordinary powers to the Enforcement Directorate of the Finance Ministry, the wing of the ministry charged with tracking down tax evaders, then headed by Bhure Lal. Following a number of high-profile raids on suspected evaders – including Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani also known as Dhirubhai, was an Indian-Gujarati business magnate and entrepreneur who founded Reliance Industries, a petrochemicals, communications, power, and textiles conglomerate and the only privately owned Indian company in the Fortune 500. Ambani took his company...
and Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...
– Rajiv was forced to sack him as Finance Minister, possibly because many of the raids were conducted on industrialists who had supported the Congress financially in the past. However, Singh's popularity was at such a pitch that only a sideways move seemed to have been possible, to the Defence Ministry.
Once ensconced in South Block, Singh began to investigate the notoriously murky world of defence procurement. After a while, word began to spread that Singh possessed information about the Bofors
Bofors scandal
The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer...
defence deal that could damage the Prime Minister's reputation. Before he could act on it, he was dismissed from the Cabinet and, in response, resigned his memberships in the Congress Party and the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
.
Jan Morcha, Janata Dal, and National Front
Together with associates Arun NehruArun Nehru
Arun Nehru is an Indian politician and columnist. In the 1980s he was the chief strategist for his cousin Rajiv Gandhi and a minister in his government, but owing to ideological differences defected with V.P. Singh to the Janata Dal. Presently he is politically more close to BJP...
and Arif Mohammad Khan
Arif Mohammad Khan
Arif Mohammad Khan is a former Indian Union minister. He is currently a leader of Bahujan Samaj Party.-Early Life and education:...
, Singh floated an opposition party named the Jan Morcha
Jan Morcha
The Jan Morcha was founded by V. P. Singh when he was dismissed from his post of Defence Minister and subsequently left the Congress Party in 1987.Together with Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammed Khan, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, V. C...
. He was re-elected to Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
in a tightly contested by-election from Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
, defeating Sunil Shastri. On 11 October 1988, the birthday of the original Janata
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
coalition's spiritual leader Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan , widely known as JP Narayan, Jayaprakash, or Loknayak, was an Indian independence activist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution...
, the Janata Dal
Janata Dal
Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress, and the Jan Morcha led by V. P...
was formed by merger of Jan Morcha
Jan Morcha
The Jan Morcha was founded by V. P. Singh when he was dismissed from his post of Defence Minister and subsequently left the Congress Party in 1987.Together with Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammed Khan, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, V. C...
, Janata Party
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
, Lok Dal and Congress (S), in order to bring together all the centrist parties opposed to the Rajiv Gandhi government, and V. P. Singh was elected the President of the Janata Dal. A federation of the Janata Dal with various regional parties including the DMK
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
, TDP
Telugu Desam Party
Telugu Desam Party or TDP is a regional political party in India's Andhra Pradesh state. It was founded by former Telugu film star N. T...
, and AGP
Asom Gana Parishad
Asom Gana Parishad is a state political party in Assam, India. The AGP was formed after the historic Assam Accord of 1985 when Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was elected as the youngest chief minister of the country...
, came into being, called the National Front
National Front (India)
The National Front was a coalition of political parties, led by the Janata Dal, which formed India's government between 1989 and 1990 under the leadership of N. T. Rama Rao as President and V. P. Singh as Convener. The coalition's prime minister was V. P. Singh...
, with V. P. Singh as convener, N. T. Rama Rao
N. T. Rama Rao
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao , also known as NTR and fondly referred to as Anna Garu, was an Indian film actor, director, producer, and a politician...
as President, and Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (India)
Each House of the Parliament of India has a Leader of the Opposition. While the position also existed in the former Central Legislative Assembly of British India, and holders of it there included Motilal Nehru, it got statutory recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition...
, P. Upendra as a General Secretary.
General Elections of 1989
The National Front fought the elections in 1989Indian general election, 1989
General elections were held in India in 1989 to elect the members of the 9th Lok Sabha. The result was a loss for the Indian National Congress and Rajiv Gandhi, because all the opposition parties formed together a minority government under V. P. Singh and the National Front...
after coming to an electoral understanding with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
and the Communist Left Front
Left Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...
that served to unify the anti-Congress vote. The National Front, with its allies, earned a simple majority in the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
and decided to form a government. The Left Front
Left Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...
(under E. M. S. Namboodiripad
E. M. S. Namboodiripad
Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad, , popularly known as EMS, was an Indian Communist leader and the first Chief Minister of Kerala. As the first non-Congress chief minister in independent India, he became the leader of the first democratically elected communist government in the world...
and Indrajit Gupta
Indrajit Gupta
Indrajit Gupta was a Communist leader who became Indias Union Minister for Home Affairs in the United Front government from 1996 to 1998...
) and the BJP (under L. K. Advani) declined to serve in the government, preferring to support it from outside.
Election as Prime Minister
In a dramatic meeting in the Central Hall of Parliament on 1 December, V. P. Singh proposed the name of Devi Lal as Prime Minister, in spite of the fact that he himself had been clearly projected by the anti-Congress forces as the 'clean' alternative to Rajiv and their Prime Ministerial candidate. Devi Lal, a JatJat people
The Jat people are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory,...
leader from Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
stood up and refused the nomination, and said that he would prefer to be an 'elder uncle' to the Government, and that Singh should be PM. This last part came as a clear surprise to Chandra Shekhar
Chandra Shekhar
Chandra Shekhar Singh was the eighth Prime Minister of India.-Early years:He was born on 1 July 1927 to a Rajput farming family in Ibrahimpatti - Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Chandra Shekhar Singh did his Master of Arts at Allahabad University. He was known as a firebrand in student politics...
, the former head of the erstwhile Janata Party
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
, and Singh's greatest rival within the Janata Dal. Shekhar, who had clearly expected that an agreement had been forged with Lal as the consensus candidate, stormed out of the meeting and refused to serve in the Cabinet.
Cabinet
| The V. P. Singh Cabinet | ||
|---|---|---|
| OFFICE | NAME | |
| Prime Minister Prime Minister of India The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament... |
V. P. Singh | |
| Deputy Prime minister Deputy Prime Minister of India The Deputy Prime Minister of India is a member of the Indian cabinet in the Indian government. The post is not a constitutional post and seldom carries any specific powers. Generally a Deputy Prime Minister also holds other key portfolios like Home minister or Finance Minister... |
Chaudhary Devi Lal | |
| Home affairs Ministry of Home Affairs (India) Ministry of Home Affairs , known as the Home Ministry or MHA, is an Indian government ministry. It is an interior ministry mainly responsible for the maintenance of Internal security and domestic policy.-Ministerial Team:... |
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Subodh Kant Sahay Subodh Kant Sahay Subodh Kant Sahay is a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Ranchi constituency of Jharkhand, and is a member of the Indian National Congress political party. He is the Cabinet Minister for Tourism. He was the Minister of State for Home in V P Singh government when Mufti Mohd... (MoS) |
|
| External affairs Ministry of External Affairs (India) The Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna... |
I. K. Gujral | |
| Defence | retained by the PM | |
| Finance Ministry of Finance (India) The Ministry of Finance is an important ministry within the Government of India. It concerns itself with taxation, financial legislation, financial institutions, capital markets, center and state finances, and the Union Budget.... |
Madhu Dandavate Madhu Dandavate Madhu Dandavate was an Indian politician.He was born in a Deshastha family. He was popularly known as an Economist.... |
|
| Agriculture Ministry of Agriculture (India) The Ministry of Agriculture, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to agriculture in India. The 3 broad areas of scope for the Ministry are agriculture, food processing and co-operation. The ministry... |
Chaudhary Devi Lal, Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumār is an Indian politician currently serving as Chief Minister of Bihar, an eastern state of India. He leads the Janata Dal party... (MoS) |
|
| Information & Broadcasting Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India) The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is a branch of the Government of India is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to information, broadcasting, the press and films in India.... ; Parliamentary Affairs Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (India) The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is an Indian government ministry.It handles affairs relating to the Parliament of India, and works as a link between the two chambers, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha... |
P. Upendra | |
| Law and Justice Ministry of Law and Justice (India) The Ministry of Law and Justice is a prominent Ministry of Government of India. Under the , the Ministry is vested with the responsibility of administration of legal affairs, justice, and legislative affairs in India.... |
Dinesh Goswami | |
| Commerce Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India) The Ministry of Commerce and Industry administers two departments, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. The head of the Ministry is a Minister of Cabinet rank... & Tourism Ministry of Tourism (India) The Ministry of Tourism, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws relating to the development and promotion of tourism in India... |
Arun Nehru Arun Nehru Arun Nehru is an Indian politician and columnist. In the 1980s he was the chief strategist for his cousin Rajiv Gandhi and a minister in his government, but owing to ideological differences defected with V.P. Singh to the Janata Dal. Presently he is politically more close to BJP... , Arangil Sreedharan (MoS) |
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| Civil Aviation Ministry of Civil Aviation (India) The Ministry of Civil Aviation, India is responsible for the regulation of civil aviation in India.-References:**... & Energy Ministry of Power (India) The Ministry of Power is an Indian government ministry. The Minister of Power holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is Sushilkumar Shinde.... |
Arif Mohammad Khan Arif Mohammad Khan Arif Mohammad Khan is a former Indian Union minister. He is currently a leader of Bahujan Samaj Party.-Early Life and education:... |
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| Railways Ministry of Railways (India) The Ministry of Railways in India is in charge of the Indian Railways, an organisation that operates as a monopoly in rail transport in India. Dinesh Trivedi is the current minister responsible for railways.... ; Kashmir affairs |
George Fernandes George Fernandes George Mathew Fernandes is an Indian trade unionist, politician, journalist, agriculturist, and member of Rajya Sabha from Bihar. He is a key member of the Janata Dal , and was the founder of the Samata Party... |
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| Shipping & Transport Ministry of Surface Transport (India) Ministry of Surface Transport a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to surface transport in India.The Ministry is currently head by C.P. Joshi.... |
Janeshwar Mishra Janeshwar Mishra Janeshwar Mishra was a politician from Samajwadi Party. He was member of the Parliament of India representing Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament... |
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| Petroleum Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (India) The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is a ministry of the Government of India. It is responsible for the exploration, production, refining, distribution, marketing, import, export, and conservation of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum products, and liquified natural gas in India.The ministry... & Chemicals |
M. S. Gurupadaswamy | |
| Textiles | Sharad Yadav Sharad Yadav Sharad Yadav, a politician from the Janata Dal party, is currently a Member of the Parliament of India representing the Madhepura constituency of Bihar in the Lok Sabha... |
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| Industry Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India) The Ministry of Commerce and Industry administers two departments, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. The head of the Ministry is a Minister of Cabinet rank... |
Chaudhary Ajit Singh Chaudhary Ajit Singh Chaudhary Ajit Singh is an Indian politician and a prominent Jat leader from Western Uttar Pradesh. He is the founder and chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a political party recognised in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He was born on 12 February 1939 at village Bhadola in the Meerut District of... |
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| Labour & Employment Ministry of Labour and Employment (India) The Ministry of Labour and Employment, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to labour and employment in India. Shri. Mallikarjun Kharge is the Union Minister for Labour and Employment and Shri... |
Ram Vilas Paswan Ram Vilas Paswan Ram Vilas Paswan is the president of the Lok Janshakti Party and a Rajya Sabha MP.-Early life and education:Paswan was born to a Dusadh family... |
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| Environment & Forests | Nilamani Routray Nilamani Routray Nilamani Routray was an Indian politician and theChief Minister of Orissa from 1977 to 1980. He served as the Health and Family Welfare Minister and then Forest and Environment Minister in the Union Government led by V.P. Singh... , Maneka Gandhi Maneka Gandhi Maneka Gandhi is an Indian politician, animal rights activist, environmentalist, former model and widow of the Indian politician, Sanjay Gandhi. She has been a minister in four governments, and has authored a number of books in the areas of etymology, law and animal welfare... (MoS) |
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| Telecommunications Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India) The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is an Indian government ministry. It contains three departments:*Department of Telecommunications*Department of Information Technology*Department of Posts... |
K. P. Unnikrishnan | |
| Urban Development Ministry of Urban Development (India) The Ministry of Urban Development , a branch of the Government of India, is the apex bodyfor formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the housing and urban development in India. As of February 2011, head of the ministry is the Cabinet Minister Kamal Nath... |
Murasoli Maran Murasoli Maran Murasoli Maran was a prominent Tamil politician in India, and an important leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party which is headed by his maternal uncle and mentor, M. Karunanidhi. A Member of Parliament for 36 years, he was made a Union Minister in three separate central governments, in... |
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| Water Resources Ministry of Water Resources (India) The Ministry of Water Resources, a branch of the Government of India, is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the development and regulation of the water resources in India. At present, head of the ministry is the Cabinet Minister Pawan... |
Manubhai Kotadia (MoS) | |
| President President of India The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary... |
R. Venkataraman R. Venkataraman Ramaswamy Venkataraman was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union minister and as the eighth President of India.... |
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| Vice-President Vice-President of India The Vice-President of India is the second-highest ranking government official in the executive branch of the Government of India, after the President... |
Shankar Dayal Sharma Shankar Dayal Sharma Shankar Dayal Sharma was the ninth President of India serving from 1992 to 1997. Prior to his presidency, Dr Sharma had been the eighth Vice President of India, serving under President Ramaswamy Venkataraman... |
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| Speaker | Rabi Ray Rabi Ray Rabi Ray is an Indian socialist politician, a former speaker of Lok Sabha and a former Union minister of India. He hails from Orissa... |
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| Leader of the Opposition Leader of the Opposition (India) Each House of the Parliament of India has a Leader of the Opposition. While the position also existed in the former Central Legislative Assembly of British India, and holders of it there included Motilal Nehru, it got statutory recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition... |
Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira... |
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| President, Janata Dal Janata Dal Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress, and the Jan Morcha led by V. P... |
S. R. Bommai S. R. Bommai S.R. Bommai was an Indian Politician who has served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and as the Human Resource Development Minister in the Cabinet of H.D. Deve Gowda... |
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| President, National Front National Front (India) The National Front was a coalition of political parties, led by the Janata Dal, which formed India's government between 1989 and 1990 under the leadership of N. T. Rama Rao as President and V. P. Singh as Convener. The coalition's prime minister was V. P. Singh... |
N. T. Rama Rao N. T. Rama Rao Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao , also known as NTR and fondly referred to as Anna Garu, was an Indian film actor, director, producer, and a politician... |
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| Cabinet Secretary Cabinet Secretary (India) The head of executive officers of civil services of India is the Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister... |
V. C. Pande | |
Singh held office for slightly less than a year, from 2 December 1989 to 10 November 1990. During this time, Janata Dal came to power in 5 Indian states under Om Prakash Chautala
Om Prakash Chautala
Om Prakash Chautala is an Indian politician from the state of Haryana and the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal political party. He is a former Chief Minister of Haryana. Presently, he is the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.Chautala is the son of Chaudhari Devi Lal, a former...
(Banarsi Das Gupta
Banarsi Das Gupta
Banarsi Das Gupta was a former chief minister of Haryana state in India.Born in Bhiwani he studied at Pilani in Rajasthan.He was renowned freedom Fighter and went to jail many times during the British rule...
, Hukam Singh
Hukam Singh
Chaudhari Hukam Singh is a politician and former Chief Minister of the state of Haryana. He was born in a Jat Hindu family in the village Dhani Phogat , Bhiwani district in Haryana, India....
), Chimanbhai Patel
Chimanbhai Patel
-Education:He born on 3 June 1929 in Chikodra village of Sankheda Tehsil in Vadodara district. He was elected the first president of student union of The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara in 1950. He has done Masters in Economics from that university.-Political career:He has been...
, Biju Patnaik
Biju Patnaik
Biju Patnaik was an Indian politician. Also known as Biju Babu.Son of Lakshminarayan and Ashalata Patnaik, Bijayananda Patnaik was born in Cuttack, Orissa on March 5, 1916..-Role in Indonesian freedom struggle:Biju...
, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav in Hindi मुलायम सिंह यादव is an Indian politician and has influence mainly in Uttar Pradesh state of India...
, and the National Front constituents in three more under M. Karunanidhi
M. Karunanidhi
Muthuvel Karunanidhi is an Indian politician and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He has been the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder, C. N...
, N. T. Rama Rao
N. T. Rama Rao
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao , also known as NTR and fondly referred to as Anna Garu, was an Indian film actor, director, producer, and a politician...
, and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was the leader of the Assam Movement, a former Chief Minister of Assam and belongs to the Asom Gana Parishad , a major political party in the Indian state of Assam...
. The Janata Dal also shared power in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
under E. K. Nayanar
E. K. Nayanar
Erambala Krishnan Nayanar was a prominent Indian political leader of the Communist Party of India . He held the post of Chief Minister of Kerala three times; during 1980-81, 1987–91 and 1996-2001. He is the longest serving Chief Minister of Kerala, having been in office for a total of 4009 days,...
and in Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
under Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was the 11th Vice-President of India. He served in that position from August 2002, when he was elected to a five-year term by the electoral college following the death of Krishan Kant, until he resigned on July 21, 2007, after losing the presidential election to Pratibha...
(supporting the BJP government from outside).
Punjab, Kashmir, and Pakistan
He faced his first crisis within few days of taking office: terrorists kidnapped the daughter of his Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (Former Chief Minister of Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
). His government agreed to the demand for releasing militants in exchange; partly to end the storm of criticism that followed, he shortly thereafter appointed Jagmohan
Jagmohan
Jag Mohan Malhotra is an Indian politician. He was born on 25 September 1927 in Hafizabad, Punjab in British India.*He is a former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir state in India.*He was in government service for many years....
, a controversial former bureaucrat, as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, on the insistence of the BJP who were concerned that an insufficiently hard line was being taken with the separatist elements in the state. Jagmohan subsequently inflamed opinion in the Valley when he ordered troops to fire on the funeral procession of the unofficial head of Kashmiri Islam, the Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq
Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq
Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq was the Mirwaiz of his time in Kashmir and chairman of the Awami Action Committee , a coalition of disparate political parties in Jammu and Kashmir that wish independence under Islamic Conditions for the state of Jammu and Kashmir....
, and had to be replaced by G. C. Saxena. In contrast, in Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
, Singh replaced the hardline Siddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray
Siddhartha Shankar Ray was an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He was a prominent barrister, Punjab Governor and Education minister of India...
as Governor with another former bureaucrat, Nirmal Kumar Mukarji
Nirmal Kumar Mukarji
Nirmal Kumar Mukarji IAS ICS was an Indian administrator and the last member of the Indian Civil Service to serve. In the course of a long career he was Home Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, and eventually Governor of Punjab. He died in 2002.Born in Delhi to Satyanand Mukarji, Principal of St....
, who moved forward on a timetable for fresh elections. Singh himself made a much-publicised visit to the Golden Temple
Harmandir Sahib
The Harmandir Sahib also Darbar Sahib , also referred to as the Golden Temple, is a prominent Sikh gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab . Construction of the gurdwara was begun by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, and completed by his successor, Guru Arjan Dev...
to ask forgiveness for Operation Bluestar and the combination of events caused the long rebellion in Punjab to die down markedly in a few months. V. P. Singh also withdrew the IPKF from Sri Lanka and thwarted the efforts of Pakistan under Benazir Bhuto to start a border war.
Reservation for Backward Classes
Singh himself wished to move forward nationally on social justice-related issues, which would in addition consolidate the caste coalition that supported the Janata DalJanata Dal
Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress, and the Jan Morcha led by V. P...
in North India, and accordingly decided to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission
Mandal commission
The Mandal Commission was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward." It was headed by Indian parliamentarian Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal to consider the question of seat...
which suggested that a fixed quota of all jobs in the public sector be reserved
Reservation in India
Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well being of socially backward and underrepresented communities of citizens in India. There are laws in place, wherein a certain percentage of total available slots in Jobs and Education are set aside for people from...
for members of the historically disadvantaged so-called Other Backward Classes. (Generally abbreviated OBCs, these were Hindu caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
s, and certain non-Hindu caste-like communities, which, though not untouchable, had been socially and educationally backward). This decision led to widespread protests among the upper caster youth in urban areas in North India. OBC reservation (less creamy layer) was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2008.
Tussle with Dhirubhai Ambani
In 1990, the government-owned financial institutions like the Life Insurance Corporation of IndiaLife Insurance Corporation of India
The Life Insurance Corporation of India is the largest state-owned life insurance company in India, and also the country's largest investor. It is fully owned by the Government of India. It also funds close to 24.6% of the Indian Government's expenses. It has assets estimated of...
and the General Insurance Corporation stonewalled attempts by the Reliance group to acquire managerial control over Larsen & Toubro
Larsen & Toubro
Larsen & Toubro Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company has four main business sectors: technology, engineering, construction and manufacturing. L&T has an international presence, with a global spread of offices and factories, further...
. Sensing defeat, the Ambanis resigned from the board of the company. Dhirubhai, who had become L&T's chairman in April 1989, had to quit his post to make way for D. N. Ghosh, former chairman of the State Bank of India
State Bank of India
The State Bank of India is the largest Indian banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Mumbai, India. It is state-owned. The bank traces its ancestry to British India, through the Imperial Bank of India, to the founding in 1806 of the Bank of Calcutta, making it the oldest...
.
Babri Masjid
Meanwhile the BJP was moving its own agenda forward: in particular, the Ram JanmabhoomiRam Janmabhoomi
Ram Janmabhoomi is the "Birthplace of Lord Rama."Lord Rama is a major God in Hindu theology and the Hindu religion where He is described as an Avatar of Lord Vishnu in Hinduism. The exact location of Lord Rama's birth as stated in holy Ramayan as being in the city of Ayoudhya in Uttar Pardesh...
agitation, which served as a rallying cry for several radical Hindu organisations, took on new life. The party president, L. K. Advani, with Pramod Mahajan
Pramod Mahajan
Pramod Venkatesh Mahajan was a prominent Indian politician. He was one of the most powerful second generation leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and, at the time of his death, was locked in a power struggle over who would take over the reins of the BJP when the current aging leadership...
as aide, toured the northern states on a rath – a bus converted to look like a mythical chariot – with the intention of drumming up support. Before he could complete the tour by reaching the disputed site in Ayodhya, he was arrested on Singh's orders at Samastipur
Samastipur
Samastipur is a city and a municipality in Samastipur district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is headquarters of the Samastipur district.It is situated on the banks of Burhi Gandak River.-Demographics:...
on the charges of disturbing the peace and fomenting communal tension. The kār-seva (demolition of the mosque and construction of the temple) proposed by Advani on 30 October 1990 was prevented by stationing troops at the site. This led to the BJP's suspension of support to the National Front government. V. P. Singh faced the vote of confidence saying that he occupied the high moral ground, as he stood for secularism, had saved the Babri Masjid at the cost of power and had upheld the fundamental principles which were challenged during the crises; `What kind of India do you want?', he asked of his opponents of various shades in Parliament before losing the vote 142–346; only the portion of the National Front remaining loyal to him (see below) and the Left front supported him in the vote.
Chandra Shekhar
Chandra Shekhar immediately seized the moment and left the Janata Dal with several of his own supporters (including Devi Lal, Janeshwar MishraJaneshwar Mishra
Janeshwar Mishra was a politician from Samajwadi Party. He was member of the Parliament of India representing Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament...
, H. D. Deve Gowda
H. D. Deve Gowda
Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda was the 11th Prime Minister of India and the 14th chief minister of the state of Karnataka ....
, Maneka Gandhi
Maneka Gandhi
Maneka Gandhi is an Indian politician, animal rights activist, environmentalist, former model and widow of the Indian politician, Sanjay Gandhi. She has been a minister in four governments, and has authored a number of books in the areas of etymology, law and animal welfare...
, Subodh Kant Sahay
Subodh Kant Sahay
Subodh Kant Sahay is a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Ranchi constituency of Jharkhand, and is a member of the Indian National Congress political party. He is the Cabinet Minister for Tourism. He was the Minister of State for Home in V P Singh government when Mufti Mohd...
, Om Prakash Chautala
Om Prakash Chautala
Om Prakash Chautala is an Indian politician from the state of Haryana and the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal political party. He is a former Chief Minister of Haryana. Presently, he is the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.Chautala is the son of Chaudhari Devi Lal, a former...
, Hukam Singh
Hukam Singh
Chaudhari Hukam Singh is a politician and former Chief Minister of the state of Haryana. He was born in a Jat Hindu family in the village Dhani Phogat , Bhiwani district in Haryana, India....
, Chimanbhai Patel
Chimanbhai Patel
-Education:He born on 3 June 1929 in Chikodra village of Sankheda Tehsil in Vadodara district. He was elected the first president of student union of The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara in 1950. He has done Masters in Economics from that university.-Political career:He has been...
, Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav in Hindi मुलायम सिंह यादव is an Indian politician and has influence mainly in Uttar Pradesh state of India...
, Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha is an Indian politician and a former finance minister of India and foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet...
, V. C. Shukla
Vidya Charan Shukla
Vidya Charan Shukla was born on 2 August 1929 at Raipur . His father Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla was an illustrious lawyer, freedom fighter, veteran Congressman, Premier of CP & Berar and the first Chief Minister of reorganised Madhya Pradesh. Vidya Charan Shukla graduated from Morris College Nagpur...
, and Sanjay Singh
Sanjay Singh
Dr. Sanjay Singh/Sinh is a member of the Parliament of India, Lok Sabha from Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, earlier was elected from Amethi / Amethi in India from 1998 to 1999 and earlier a member of Rajya Sabha from 1990 to 1996. He has been a controversial political figure...
) to form the Samajwadi Janata Party / Janata Dal (Socialist)
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)
Samajwadi Janata Party is a political party in India founded by former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar Singh known as Chandra Shekhar and led by him until his death on July 8, 2007...
. Although he had a mere 64 MPs, Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
, the leader of the Opposition, agreed to support him on the floor of the House; so he won a confidence motion and was sworn in as Prime Minister. 8 Janata Dal MPs who voted for this motion were disqualified by the speaker Rabi Ray
Rabi Ray
Rabi Ray is an Indian socialist politician, a former speaker of Lok Sabha and a former Union minister of India. He hails from Orissa...
. He lasted only a few months before Gandhi withdrew support and fresh elections were called. He tried his best to get support till the last minute but failed.
Aftermath
Singh contested the new elections but his party was relegated to the opposition chiefly due to the assassination of Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
during the election campaign, and he later retired from active politics. He spent the next few years touring the country speaking about matters related to issues of social justice and his artistic pursuits, chiefly painting. In the H. D. Deve Gowda
H. D. Deve Gowda
Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda was the 11th Prime Minister of India and the 14th chief minister of the state of Karnataka ....
and I. K. Gujral governments of the late 1990s, Singh acted as a sort of elder statesman and adviser for the successors to the National Front coalition. In 1992, Singh was the first to propose the name of the future President K. R. Narayanan
K. R. Narayanan
Kocheril Raman Narayanan , also known as K. R. Narayanan, was the tenth President of India. He was the first Dalit, and the first Malayali, to have been President....
as a (eventually successful) candidate for Vice President. Later the same year in December, he led his followers to Ayodhya to oppose the Kar seva proposed by L. K. Advani, and was arrested before he could reach the site; the Masjid was demolished by the kar sevaks a few days later. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1998 and ceased his public appearances.
Jan Morcha relaunch
When his cancer went into remission in 2003, he once again became a visible figure, especially in the many groupings that had inherited the space once occupied by his Janata DalJanata Dal
Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress, and the Jan Morcha led by V. P...
. Ironically, his caste-based social justice policies had caused the rise of parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party
Bahujan Samaj Party
The Bahujan Samaj Party is a centrist national political party in India with socialist leanings. It was formed to chiefly represent Bahujans , referring to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes as well as Buddhists. The party claims to be inspired by the...
that were formed around caste identities; his own notion of populist socialism was thus squeezed out of the electoral marketplace. To remedy this, he relaunched the Jan Morcha
Jan Morcha
The Jan Morcha was founded by V. P. Singh when he was dismissed from his post of Defence Minister and subsequently left the Congress Party in 1987.Together with Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammed Khan, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, V. C...
in 2006 with Raj Babbar
Raj Babbar
Raj Babbar is a Hindi & Punjabi film actor since 1977 and the current Member of Parliament from Firozabad which he won by defeating Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav & daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav. This is his fourth term as MP, in previous terms he was the part of Samajwadi...
as President, and began the slow process of aggregation of smaller parties in the North with a view to contesting the 2007 Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
elections.
Agitation at Dadri
Singh was placed under arrest in Ghaziabad as he and his supporters were proceeding towards a hauling where prohibitory orders under Section 144 had been imposed to join the farmers agitating against the acquisition of land at DadriDadri
Dadri is a city and a municipal board in Gautam Buddha Nagar District in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.-Geography:Dadri is located at . It has an average elevation of 216 metres .It has world largest power project.-Demographics:...
by the Anil Ambani
Anil Ambani
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani is an Indian-Gujarati business baron and chairman of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest private conglomerates. Anil's elder brother, Mukesh Ambani, is worth more than 29 billion dollars, and owns another company called Reliance Industries...
-owned Reliance Industries and demanding adequate compensation. Later, Singh and CPI General Secretary A. B. Bardhan were again arrested on the U. P. border when they were proceeding to Dadri. However, Singh and Babbar were later able to evade the police, reaching Dadri on 18 August 2006, and ploughing the land in solidarity with the farmers.
Death
V. P. Singh died after a long struggle with multiple myelomaMultiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma , also known as plasma cell myeloma or Kahler's disease , is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell normally responsible for the production of antibodies...
(bone marrow cancer) and renal failure
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
at Apollo Hospital in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
on 27 November 2008. He was cremated at Allahabad
Allahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
on the banks of the River Ganges on 29 November 2008, his son Ajeya Singh
Ajeya Pratap Singh
Ajeya Pratap Singh formly known as Ajeya Singh, born in 1956, is a politician belonging to Indian National Congress and 42nd Raja Bahadur of Manda. He was President of the National Jan Morcha party in 2009, which was later on merged with Indian National Congress. He is the eldest son of 7th Prime...
lighting the funeral pyre.
National Jan Morcha
After the party drew a blank in the 2007 UP elections, Raj BabbarRaj Babbar
Raj Babbar is a Hindi & Punjabi film actor since 1977 and the current Member of Parliament from Firozabad which he won by defeating Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav & daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav. This is his fourth term as MP, in previous terms he was the part of Samajwadi...
joined the Congress, and Singh's elder son Ajeya Singh (Ajeya Pratap Singh) took over the reins of the party in anticipation of the 2009 General elections. In March 2009 Ajeya Singh announced that Jan Morcha was to be merged with the Lok Janshakti Party
Lok Janshakti Party
The Lok Jan Shakti Party is a state political party in the state Bihar , India. It is led by Ram Vilas Paswan. The party was formed in 2000 when Paswan split from Janata Dal . The party has considerable following amongst Dalits in Bihar. The 2004 Lok Sabha elections marked a major break-through for...
(LJP). Ajeya Singh and other members were inducted into the LJP and Ajeya was declared a Vice President of the party and its candidate from Fatehpur
Fatehpur, Fatehpur
Fatehpur is a city and a municipal board in Fatehpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.-Geography:Fatehpur is located at . It has an average elevation of 110 metres...
Lok Sabha constituency. However, later, Ram Vilas Paswan
Ram Vilas Paswan
Ram Vilas Paswan is the president of the Lok Janshakti Party and a Rajya Sabha MP.-Early life and education:Paswan was born to a Dusadh family...
joined hands with the Samajwadi Party
Samajwadi Party
Samajwadi Party is a political party in India. It is based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It describes itself as a democratic socialist party...
(SP) of Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav in Hindi मुलायम सिंह यादव is an Indian politician and has influence mainly in Uttar Pradesh state of India...
and the RJD of Laloo Prasad Yadav, to form a Fourth front, and Mulayam Singh declared that the LJP would not contest any seats in UP. Ajeya Singh then contested as Jan Morcha candidate from Fatehpur, but lost to Rakesh Sachan
Rakesh Sachan
Rakesh Sachan, was elected as Member of Parliament from Fatehpur , contesting on the Samajwadi Party ticket in the Indian general election, 2009.-References:...
of the SP.
The Jan Morcha
Jan Morcha
The Jan Morcha was founded by V. P. Singh when he was dismissed from his post of Defence Minister and subsequently left the Congress Party in 1987.Together with Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammed Khan, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, V. C...
was renamed as the National Jan Morcha in June 2009 and dedicated to farmer's causes and to forging a third alternative in national politics. A month later, the Jan Morcha merged with the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
.
Films on V. P. Singh
Juliet Reynolds, an art critic and a close friend of Singh, made a short documentary on him, titled The Art of the Impossible (45 minutes long), and covers his political and artistic career.Suma Josson
Suma Josson
Suma Josson is an Indian-American journalist and filmmaker. Her documentary film Niyamgiri, You are still alive, on the ecological and human damage done by bauxitemining, won first prize in Short Film, Environment, at the 2010 International Film Festival of India.-Life:She was born in Kerala, India...
made another film on Singh titled One more day to live.
Books on V. P. Singh
- G. S. Bhargava: Peristroika in India: V. P. Singh's Prime ministership, Gian publishing house, New Delhi, 1990.
- Madan Gaur: V. P. Singh: portrait of a leader, Press and Publicity Syndicate of India, 1990.
- Seema MustafaSeema MustafaSeema Mustafa is an Indian journalist. She is the former Political Editor and Delhi Bureau Chief of The Asian Age newspaper published in India. Her op-ed column appeared on Saturdays. These were syndicated to several newspapers, including The Deccan Chronicle from Bangalore, India and The Dawn...
: The lonely prophet: V. P. Singh, a political biography, New Age international, 1995. - Ram Bahadur RaiRam Bahadur RaiRambahadur Rai is a eminent Hindi Journalist. Rai is the editor of Pratham Pravakta, a Hindi fortnightly news magazine published from Delhi. A former news editor of Jansatta newspaper, he is the author of Rahvari ke Sawal and Manjil se Jyada Safar . A founder organiser of JP Movement, Ram bahadur...
: Manjil se jyada safar (in Hindi), 2005.
Other books connected to V. P. Singh
- I. K. Gujral: Matters of Discretion: An Autobiography, Hay House, India, 519 pages, Feb. 2011. ISBN 978-93-80480-80-0. Distributors: Penguin books, India. (The only autobiography by an Indian PM)
- R. VenkataramanR. VenkataramanRamaswamy Venkataraman was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union minister and as the eighth President of India....
: My Presidential Years, HarperCollins/Indus, 1995. ISBN 81-7223-202-0. - P. Upendra: Gatham Swagatham.
External links
- Prime minister's office
- Speech opposing the India-US nuclear dealOpposition to the Indo-US civilian agreement in IndiaThe Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement was met with stiff opposition by some political parties and activists in India. Although many mainstream political parties including the Indian National Congress support the deal along with regional parties like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Rashtriya Janata...
Part I Part II, Oct. 2007.
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