1. Early life

2. Political career
     Union Home Minister  

3. Controversies
    Bribery in the Yeddy diaries 

4. References

5. External links

Rajnath Singh (born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party who currently serves as the Home Minister of India. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Union Minister for Agriculture in the Vajpayee Government. He has also served as the President of the BJP twice, 2005 to 2009 and 2013 to 2014. He began his career as a physics lecturer and used his long-term association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to become involved with the Janata Party. The DND Flyway which connects Delhi and Noida was inaugurated by him in February 2001.

Early life

Singh was born in the small village of Bhabhaura in Chandauli district, Uttar Pradesh in a Hindu Rajput family.^[2] His father was Ram Badan Singh and his mother was Gujarati Devi.^[3] He was born into a family of farmers and went on to secure a master's degree in physics, acquiring first division results from the Gorakhpur University.^[3] Rajnath Singh had been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since 1964, at the age of 13 and remained connected with the organisation even during his employment as a physics lecturer in Mirzapur.^[3] In 1974, he was appointed secretary for the Mirzapur unit of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, predecessor of Bharatiya Janata Party.^[3]

Political career

In 1975, aged 24, Singh was appointed District President of the Jana Sangh.^[3] In 1977, he was elected Member of Legislative Assembly from the Mirzapur.^[3] He became the State President of the BJP youth wing in 1984, the National general secretary in 1986^[3] and the National President in 1988. He was also elected into the Uttar Pradesh legislative council.^[3]

In 1991, he became Education Minister in the first BJP government in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Major highlights of his tenure as Education Minister included Anti-Copying Act, 1992, which made copying a non-bailable offence,^[4] rewriting history texts and incorporating vedic mathematics into the syllabus.^[5] In April 1994, he was elected into the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament) and he became involved with the Advisory committee on Industry (1994–96), Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Agriculture, Business Advisory Committee, House Committee and the Committee on Human Resource Development.^[3] On 25 March 1997, he became the President of the BJP's unit in Uttar Pradesh and in 1999 he became the Union Cabinet Minister for Surface Transport.^[3]

In 2000, he became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and was twice elected as MLA from Haidergarh in 2001 and 2002.^[4] He tried to rationalise the reservation structure in government jobs by introducing the most Backward Classes among the OBC and SC, so that the benefit of reservation can reach the lowest status of Society.^[6]

In 2003, Singh was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture and subsequently for Food Processing in the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and was faced with the difficult task of maintaining one of the most volatile areas of India's economy.^[7] During this period he initiated a few epoch-making projects including the Kisan Call Centre and Farm Income Insurance Scheme.^[8] He brought down interest rates on Agriculture loans and also established Farmer Commission and initiated Farms Income Insurance Scheme.^[6]

After the BJP lost power in the 2004 general elections, it was forced to sit in the Opposition. After the resignation of prominent figure Lal Krishna Advani, and the murder of strategist Pramod Mahajan, Singh sought to rebuild the party by focusing on the most basic Hindutva ideologies.^[9] He announced his position of "no compromise" in relation to the building of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya at any cost^[9] and commended the rule of Vajpayee as Prime Minister, pointing towards all the developments the NDA made for the ordinary people of India.^[10] He also criticised the role of the English language in India, claiming that it caused erosion of cultural values.^[11]

He became the BJP National President on December 31, 2005, a post he held till December 19, 2009. In May 2009, he was elected MP from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.^[12]

On 24 January 2013, following the resignation of Nitin Gadkari due to corruption charges, Singh was re-elected as the BJP's National President.^[13]

Singh is on record shortly after the law Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was re-instated in 2013, claiming that his party is "unambiguously" in favour of the law, also claiming that "We will state (at an all-party meeting if it is called) that we support Section 377 because we believe that homosexuality is an unnatural act and cannot be supported.”^[14]

He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow constituency and was subsequently elected as a Member of the Parliament.^[15]

In 2014, Rajnath said that 75 per cent of the people in India either speak or know Hindi.^[16]

Union Home Minister

He was appointed the Union Minister of Home Affairs in the Narendra Modi government and was sworn in on 26 May 2014.^[17]

He triggered controversy amid the protests over the police action at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on 14 February 2016, claiming that the "JNU incident" was supported by Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.^[18]

In May 2016, he claimed that infiltration from Pakistan declined by 52% in a period of two years.^[19]

On 9 April 2017, he launched Bharat Ke Veer Web portal and Application with Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. This was an initiative taken by him for the welfare of Martyrs' family.^[20]

An official anthem was launched on 20 January 2018 for the cause 'Bharat Ke Veer' by him along with film star Akshay Kumar, and other ministers Kiren Rijiju, Hansraj Ahir.^[21]

On 21 May 2018, he commissioned Bastariya Battalion. As Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh attended the passing out parade of 241 Bastariya Battalion of CRPF in Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh on 21 May 2018.^[22]

Controversies

Bribery in the Yeddy diaries

In March 2019, the reputed Indian news magazine "The Caravan" ran a cover story stating that a number of prominent people including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, L.K.Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were mentioned in Yeddyurappa's personal diary which had been in the custody of the Income Tax department for over an year. The pages of Yeddy's state legislators diary contained hand written entries made on 17 and 18 January 2009, which carried entries between Rs. 100 crore (to Rajnath Singh through its various companies and trusts) to Rs. 1000 crore (to the BJP) made from the public coffers. It also contained payments made by him to various other entities belonging to the BJP as well as judges and advocates. The magazine uploaded the incriminating pages of the diary.^[23] The entries describe payments to Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, judges and the BJP party itself, totaling 1,800 crore rupees.^[24]

References

External links

• Biography Profile at Lok Sabha, Parliament of India
• Official website (personal)

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