Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Ex-Prime Minister, poet and painter, is a Renaissance man. They tend to emerge as political figures in changing times. Two of the most prominent in India’s past are Jawaharlal Nehru and Winston Churchill. They were both on different sides over the question of Indian independence. Both, however, found themselves on the same side, during World War II, committed to fighting Hitler’s fascism.

This tells us something about the men of destiny in politics in our times and also about fascism. Such people have to carry a broader vision with them than day-to-day politics require. This broader vision is all the more necessary as ours is a period of history with events going backwards and forwards in an upredictable manner.

Also there are long periods when contending forces stand eyeball-to-eyeball, posing a challenge to all who live through it. The enterprising find avenues of success in them and the unenterprising, the fog of confusion. At the same time they have to be firm in their convictions so as to put up a determined fight for what they believe in. V.P. Singh clearly belongs to this category.

Few Indian political leaders have been as reviled as V.P. Singh. Few have made as lasting a contribution to Indian nation building. I refer, of course, to his decision in August 1990 to implement the Mandal Commission’s recommendations and reserve 27 per cent of the jobs in Central government for the backward classes. I was privileged to witness the paradox at close quarters. This is how it happened. Contrary to the impression that was assiduously spread by the media, his decision was no last minute, knee-jerk attempt to shore up his shaky minority government. VP had implemented the recommendations in Uttar Pradesh when he was its chief minister in 1980. In 1989, when the National Front obtained only seven seats in the south, 81 of its 144 MPs were backward-caste members of the Janata Dal. As a result the question of not implementing Mandal simply did not arise. What was knee-jerk was VP’s decision to announce the implementation of the Mandal award without any warning on August 7. For this the coming confrontation with the BJP over the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue was mainly to blame. In the beginning of July, I was asked to join a meeting between VP and the cabinet secretary, Vinod Pande. Apparently (this was when I was not present) the government had come to know that the BJP was going to break its pre-election promise not to allow the Ram temple to become an issue in its continued support of the government.

Name : Vishwanath Pratap Singh Father’s Name : Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh Date of Birth : June 25th, 1931 Place of Birth : Allahabad (UP) Date of Marriage : June 25th, 1955 Wife’s Name : Sita Kumari Children : Two sons, Ajeya Singh & Abhai Singh Education : B.A., LLB, B.Sc., Allahabad & Pune University Field of Work : Social Work Permanent Address : 4, Ashok Road, Allahabad (UP) Present Address : 1, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi-110011

Shri V.P.Singh and the Family

Post 1969-71 : MLA, UP 1971 : MP of 5th Lok Sabha 10th Oct. 1974 to Dec. 1976 : Commerce Deputy-Minister of Central Govt. Dec. 1976 to March 1977 : State Minister of Commerce Jan. 1980 to June 1980 : MP of 7th Lok Sabha Nov. 1980 to June 1981 : MLC, UP June 1980 to June 1982 : Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh June 1981 to July 1983 : Member of UP Assembly July 1983 to April 1988 : MP, Rajya Sabha 29th Jan. 1983 to Sept. 1984 : Minister of Commerce & addl. charge of Supply Sept. 1984 : Member, A.I.C.C. (I), President P.C.C. (I), UP Dec. 1984 to Jan. 1987 : Finance Minister, Govt. of India Jan. 1985 to March 1985 : Minister of Finance, Commerce & Supply March 1985 to Sept. 1985 : Minister of Finance, Commerce & Supply 23rd Jan. 1987 to April 1987 : Defence Minister, Govt. of India 2nd Oct. 1987 : Founder, Jan Morcha June 1988 : MP, Lok Sabha August 1988 : Convener, Rashtriya Morcha Oct. 1988 : President, Janta Dal Nov. 1989 : Elected MP of 9th Lok Sabha (Third term) 5th Dec. 1989 to 10th Nov. 1990 : Prime Minister (Defence and other so many ministries, which were not distributed) 5th Dec. 1989 to 21st April 1990 : Minister of Environment June 1991 : Elected MP of 10th Lok Sabha