Kalyan Singh was the face of the Ram Mandir movement who helped BJP boost its Hindutva agenda in Uttar Pradesh

“That day (December 6), I got a call from the district magistrate of Ayodhya (Faizabad) saying that nearly 3.5 lakh kar sevaks had assembled. I was told that central forces were on the way to the temple town but their movement was halted by kar sevaks outside Saket College,” Singh, 89, told the Hindustan Times in what would be his last interview.

“I was asked whether to order firing or not. I denied permission in writing and said in my order, which is still there on the files,” Singh said claiming that it was the demolition of the mosque that eventually paved the way for the construction of Ram Mandir.

On September 30, 2020, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh acquitted all accused, including Singh in the Babri Masjid demolition case. That day, Singh was recuperating from COVID-19 in a Ghaziabad hospital near Delhi.  Singh expressed happiness over the verdict and a doctors' team offered him sweets, the hospital said in a statement. His son, Rajveer Singh, congratulated him on the telephone.

Also, read: Babri Masjid demolition case verdict: CBI court acquits LK Advani, 31 other accused

Born on January 5, 1932 in Atrauli town of Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district, Singh served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for multiple terms and as the Member of Legislative Assembly for the Jana Sangh, Janata Party and the BJP. He was also a Lok Sabha member from Etah between 2009 and 2014. He served as the governor of Himachal Pradesh in 2015.

Singh became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time in June 1991, a year before Babri Masjid’s demolition – his claim to fame, as many would say. Before being sworn-in, he visited the disputed structure and paid obeisance at the idols placed there followed by a vow to construct a temple.

"In my tenure as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, a temple of Shri Ram will inevitably be constructed," Singh was quoted as saying in a CBI charge sheet in the case in which he was eventually acquitted.

Old timers in Uttar Pradesh remember Singh as a young Jan Sangh worker of 1960s who eventually became one of the very few “people’s leaders” from the state for the BJP – the later version of the Jan Sangh. They said that given Singh’s backward credentials, BJP could expand its presence in UP from being considered an urban-centric upper caste (baniya, or trader) party.

“He was one of the first leaders to be instrumental in connecting urban-centric BJP with rural farmers and backward caste people,” Rajesh Mishra, political observer and former professor of sociology at Lucknow University told MoneyControl.

In the events leading up to December 6, 1992, Singh had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court promising that as the chief minister of the state, he will not allow any damage to the mosque. After the demolition, Singh took moral responsibility for what had happened and resigned from his position.

“He was successful in mobilising people in the Ram Mandir movement among farmers and OBCs. His Lodh-Rajput caste came in handy. Demolishing the mosque would not have been possible under any other CM,” Mishra said.

Also, read : This is how the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will look like on completion

After his admission saying that “he was ready to go to jail, for the Ram temple,” Singh had to spend a day in Tihar Jail in October 1994 for the contempt of promise that he had made to the top court.

Singh's first government in the state is often said to have aided the Ram Mandir movement. “By taking no steps to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Kalyan Singh as CM of Uttar Pradesh neither upheld constitutional obligations nor did he enforce judicial directives,” wrote author Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay in “The Demolition: India At The Crossroads” 

In the post-Babri Masjid demolition era, Singh won assembly elections in 1993 from then undivided UP’s Atrauli and Kasganj. He again served as the chief minister between September 1997 and November 1999. It was in this tenure that primary schools in Uttar Pradesh were asked to begin the day with a worship of Bharat Mata and that Vande Mataram should substitute “Yes, sir” during the attendance call.

On February 21, 1998, Kalyan Singh government was dismissed by the then governor of UP, Romesh Bhandari. Soon after the order, then PM candidate of the BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee went on fast-unto-death in protest of the Governor’s decision. Two days later, the Allahabad High Court stayed the Governor’s order and Kalyan Singh was reinstated as Uttar Pradesh chief minister. Vajpayee called off the fast.

Singh left the BJP in 1999 only to return to the saffron party in January 2004 when he contested the Lok Sabha polls from UP’s Bulandshahr. Again, just ahead of Lok Sabha polls in 2009, Singh quit the party alleging he was “humiliated”. He campaigned for the Samajwadi Party that year.

In 2010, Singh announced the formation of the Jan Kranti Party. Four four years later, he again returned to the BJP. In the same year, he was appointed the governor of Rajasthan and he completed his term in 2019. In September 2019, Singh joined the BJP again.

Kalyan Singh's son Rajveer Singh is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Etah in Uttar Pradesh and grandson Sandeep Singh is a minister in chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s state government.