Kalyan Singh passes away

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 21

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh passed away at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, on Saturday due to multi-organ failure.

He was 89. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath announced a state mourning of three days. “His last rites will be performed on the banks of Ganga in Narora on August 23. It will be a public holiday on that day,” he said in Lucknow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a series of messages, calling the late BJP leader a veteran administrator and a grassroots-level leader. “I am saddened beyond words… Generations to come will remain forever grateful to Kalyan Singh ji for his contribution towards India’s cultural regeneration. He was firmly rooted in Indian values,” he said, adding that the veteran leader gave voice to the marginalised sections.

The BJP’s success in Uttar Pradesh is attributed to a large degree to Kalyan Singh, a prominent OBC face who helped the saffron party build a solid vote base. A well-known face of Hindutva, he symbolised the rise of the saffron party in the Hindi heartland, successfully bringing together ‘mandal’ and ‘kamandal’.

He was the CM of UP during the Babri Masjid demolition. Just hours after mobs of ‘kar sevaks’ demolished the structure, he quit as CM owning moral responsibility. The state Assembly was dissolved as riots erupted in the country. But observers say: “He had no regrets over his failure to save the mosque which he had assured the Supreme Court would be protected”.

Kalyan Singh had filed an affidavit, assuring the court that the mosque would be protected. But he ordered the police not to open fire on protesters, arguing later that this would have led to a bloodshed.

“May be it was destined that the structure would be demolished with me as CM,” he was quoted as saying ahead of the 2020 “bhoomi pujan” for Ram Temple at the once disputed site in Ayodhya.

Hailed by many for his administrative acumen during his two stints as CM, the influential OBC leader from western UP left the BJP twice and floated his own party. Kalyan Singh won the Assembly polls several times, held important posts in the BJP and was appointed Rajasthan Governor in the last phase of his public life. He was admitted to the ICU on July 4. His last wish — to see Ram Temple come up — remained unfulfilled.