Vishwanath Pratap Singh (born June 25, 1931, Uttar Pradesh; died November 27, 2008, Delhi) was the eighth Prime Minister of India. Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who became Prime Minister due to the fall of Rajiv Gandhi government, obtained the post of Prime Minister on December 2, 1989 through the general elections. Apart from being extremely ambitious, Singh is also said to be a crooked politician.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh was born on June 25, 1931 in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh. He was the son of Raja Bahadur Rai Gopal Singh. He was married to Sita Kumari on his birthday, June 25, 1955. They were blessed with two sons, Ratna. Singh had established ‘Gopal Intermediate College’ in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh).
Vishwanath Pratap Singh studied at Allahabad and Poona Universities. He was the President of the Student Union of Uday Pratap College, Varanasi in 1947–1948. Vishwanath Pratap Singh was also the Vice President of the Student Union of Allahabad University. In 1957, he played an active role in the ‘Bhoodan Movement’. Singh donated his lands. There was a family dispute for this, which even reached the court. He was also a member of the executive cell of ‘All India Congress Committee’ of Allahabad. Apart from politics, he was also fond of poetry and painting. His poetry collections were also published and exhibitions of paintings were also held.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh became interested in politics during his student days. He belonged to a rich family, due to which he achieved success in politics in his youth. He became associated with the Indian Congress Party. In 1969-1971 he reached Uttar Pradesh Assembly. He also held the charge of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. His tenure as Chief Minister lasted from June 9, 1980 to June 28, 1982. After this, he became the Union Commerce Minister on January 29, 1983. Vishwanath Pratap Singh was also a member of Rajya Sabha. On December 31, 1984, he also became the Finance Minister of India. In the scenario of Indian politics, Vishwanath Pratap Singh was the Finance Minister at the time when he clashed with Rajiv Gandhi. Vishwanath Pratap Singh had information that many Indians had deposited huge amounts of money in foreign banks. On this, V.P. Singh i.e. Vishwanath Pratap Singh appointed an American spy agency ‘Fairfax’ so that such Indians could be traced.
On April 16, 1987, Sweden broadcast the news that a deal for 410 guns of Bofors Company had been made in India, in which an amount of Rs. 60 crores was given as commission. When this news reached the Indian media, it started presenting it as a headline every day. The opposition also used this ‘breaking news’ extensively. He conveyed the message to the public that Rajiv Gandhi and his family members were involved in brokerage worth Rs 60 crore. Although this was a complete lie and was later proved to be true. The Indian Court also gave clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi. The elections of 1989 also came with the Bofors scandal in the headlines. V.P. Singh and the opposition presented it as an election issue. After V.P. Singh was expelled by the Congress in 1987, he started spreading propaganda among the public that corruption is rampant at the top level in the Congress government.
On one hand, V.P. Singh created the image of his truthful Harishchandra among the public and on the other hand, he also started the work of breaking the Congress. V.P. Singh started contacting those who were dissatisfied with Rajiv Gandhi. He wanted the dissatisfied Congressmen to separate from Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress Party. The first name in his campaign was that of Arif Muhammad. Arif Muhammad was a person of independent and progressive thoughts. For this reason he wanted that it was necessary to eliminate Islamic evils. Arif Muhammad and Rajiv Gandhi were very close to each other but one incident created a deep gap between them. What actually happened was that after Shah Bano was divorced by her husband in Hyderabad, the matter reached the court. The court considered Muslim woman Shah Bano eligible for subsistence allowance. But Muslim fundamentalists wanted the decision to be taken only on the basis of ‘Muslim Personal Law’. Due to this, this controversy had become very serious. In such a situation, Rajiv Gandhi asked Arif Muhammad to run a vigorous campaign to make people understand that Muslims should accept the new law and should not depend on ‘Muslim Personal Law’.
V.P. Singh, along with Vidyacharan Shukla, Ramdhan and Satpal Malik and other disgruntled Congressmen, formed a separate front on October 2, 1987. Bharatiya Janata Party also joined this front. The Left parties also announced their support to the front. Thus, a front of seven parties was formed on August 6, 1988 and the National Front was formally formed on October 11, 1988.
The 1989 Lok Sabha elections were completed. Congress had to suffer heavy losses. It got only 197 seats. Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s National Front got 146 seats. BJP and Left parties expressed their intention to support the National Front. Then BJP had 86 MPs and Left parties had 52 MPs. In this way the National Front got the support of 248 members. V.P.Singh was calling himself a candidate for the post of Prime Minister. He felt that the defeat of Rajiv Gandhi and Congress was possible only because of him. But Chandrashekhar and Devi Lal also joined the race for the post of Prime Minister. In such a situation, it was decided that V.P. Singh would be crowned as the Prime Minister and Chaudhary Devi Lal would be made the Deputy Prime Minister. Therefore, on December 2, 1989, V.P. Singh took oath as Prime Minister.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh made his moves wearing the attire of simplicity. He appeared to be a common man in front of the public but was a crooked Chanakya at heart. As soon as he became the Prime Minister, he ran towards the Golden Temple to heal the wounds of the Sikhs. ‘Operation Blue Star’ was a step taken by Rajiv Gandhi’s mother Indira Gandhi. VP Singh had promised to expose the corruption of Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress Party, but he could not prove any of the allegations. By that time Rajiv Gandhi had died. Chandrashekhar and Devi Lal were also competing with him.
Terrorism in Kashmir was also becoming a problem. George Fernandes was made the chairman of the committee formed to settle the Kashmir issue. Arun Nehru and Mufti Muhammad Sayeed were also made authorized to intervene in the Kashmir issue. Then he completed the remaining task by making Jagmohan the Governor of Kashmir. It was clear that he was not trusting anyone. Overall the National Front government failed in all areas. There was complete withdrawal of Indian Army from Sri Lanka. The issue of Ram Mandir and Babri Masjid was also kept complicated. When V.P. Singh sent Jagmohan as the Governor of Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah resigned from the post of Chief Minister. Then Jagmohan dissolved the assembly to take over the rule of Kashmir. In such a situation, V.P. Singh was forced to call Jagmohan back from Kashmir.
Chandrashekhar of Janata Morcha was a person who spoke the truth. Farooq Abdullah had resigned from the post of Chief Minister because Jagmohan was sent as the Governor of Kashmir. In 1983, Jagmohan had broken the MLAs and forced Farooq Abdullah to resign from the post of Chief Minister. For this reason Chandrashekhar supported Farooq Abdullah. The relations between all the leaders in the National Front were very bad. Devi Lal did not like Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh and Chandrashekhar disliked Devi Lal. Devi Lal was infatuated with his son Omprakash Chautala. For this reason, he appointed Omprakash Chautala as the Chief Minister of Haryana. Chautala had contested the election from Meham seat. The Election Commission canceled that election due to rigging. Then Chautala had to resign from the post of Chief Minister. But after two months, with the blessing of his Deputy Prime Minister father Devi Lal, he again became the Chief Minister of Haryana. This increased the situation of infighting in the National Front.
Arif Muhammad and Arun Nehru resigned on the issue of Omprakash Chautala. Then V.P.Singh clearly told Devi Lal that if Omprakash Chautala does not leave the post of Chief Minister of Haryana, he will resign from the post of Prime Minister. In such a situation, Devi Lal assured him that Omprakash Chautala would leave the post of Chief Minister. Devi Lal knew that the people putting pressure on his son Omprakash Chautala were Arun Nehru and Arif Muhammad. That is why he made allegations of corruption against both of them. In support of the allegation, Devi Lal presented V.P. Singh’s letter written to the President in 1987. In which it was written that Arun Nehru and Arif Muhammad were involved in the Bofors deal. V.P. Singh not only declared that letter fake but also dismissed Chaudhary Devi Lal without estimating his power.
Devi Lal decided to hold a farmers rally on 9th August to demonstrate his power. VP Singh knew that Chaudhary Devi Lal had a good influence on the farmers. He knew that if this rally took place, the Delhi administration would be shaken. Therefore, to counter that rally, V.P. Singh presented the Mandal Commission report in Parliament on 7 August. In fact, the Janata Party government had constituted the Mandal Commission in 1977-79. Mandan Commission had made several recommendations regarding Other Backward Classes. But before the Janata Party could implement it, it broke and after the elections Indira Gandhi came to power.
V.P. Singh had got the same recommendations of the Mandal Commission. After presenting it in the Parliament, when the recommendations were implemented, there was an earthquake in the country. Two new problems arose in the form of upper castes and other backward classes. Other backward classes were getting 27 percent reservation in jobs, while only 50.5 percent job opportunities were left for the upper castes. Because S. C. and S. There was already 22.5 percent reservation for T. This reservation policy was to be applicable to higher education opportunities also.
As soon as the recommendations of the Mandal Commission were implemented, the students became angry. The upper caste youth felt that their future had become bleak. The youth were demanding that S. C. and S. T. Reservation should be reviewed and people who have become equal to the upper castes by getting the benefits of reservation, should be removed from that list. Now the problem had become even more complex. Students started violent movements. Many students even committed suicide. Then Meerut farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait called upon the youth to teach a lesson to those leaders who have implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. Chaos spread in Delhi. It was beyond the power of the police to control the students. In such a situation, the Supreme Court on October 1, 1990 banned the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s report.
During this period, V.P. Singh was suffering from kidney disease. He tried to rebuild his political stature on the basis of the problems of farmers and displaced people. But his body was not cooperating. On November 27, 2008, at the age of 77, V.P. Singh died in ‘Apollo Hospital’, Delhi. He was suffering from blood cancer for the last 17 years. His liver had also stopped functioning. He was admitted to Apollo Hospital 6 months before his death. He left behind his wife Sunita Kumari and two sons Abhay Singh and Ajay Singh.
