Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008) was an Indian politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the Raja Bahadur of Manda.
Some Pakistani historians state that Singh's family originated from a village in the Yaqubi area of District Peshawar (present-day Swabi, Pakistan), and that after the Partition of India in 1947 he moved with his mother to live at his uncle's home.
He was educated at Allahabad University and Fergusson College in Pune. In 1969, he joined the Indian National Congress party and was elected as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
In the Rajiv Gandhi ministry, Singh was given various cabinet posts, including Minister of Finance and Minister of Defence. Singh was also the Leader of the Rajya Sabha from 1984 to 1987. During his tenure as Minister of Defence, the Bofors scandal came to light, and Singh resigned from the ministry. In 1988, he formed the Janata Dal party by merging various factions of the Janata Party. In the 1989 elections, the National Front, with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), formed the government and Singh became the prime minister.
During his tenure as prime minister, he implemented the Mandal Commission report for India's backward castes, which led to major protests against the act.
Under Singh's prime ministership in 1989, the Government of India released five terrorists in exchange for the release of kidnapped Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the Union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. This was a turning point in the history of Kashmir militancy, which left a long lasting impact in Kashmir. In 1990 the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the valley of Kashmir took place.
Following his opposition to the Ram Rath Yatra, the BJP withdrew its support for the National Front, and his government lost the vote of no-confidence. Singh resigned on 7 November 1990. His prime ministerial tenure lasted for 343 days.
Singh was the prime ministerial candidate for the National Front in the 1991 elections, but was defeated. He spoke out against the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. He turned down prime ministership after the 1996 Indian general election even though he was the first choice and relinquished the prime ministership to H. D. Deve Gowda. After 1996, Singh retired from political posts, but continued to remain a public figure and political critic. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1998, and ceased public appearances until the cancer went into remission in 2003. He died from complications of multiple myeloma and kidney failure in 2008. He was cremated with full state honours.
Early life and education Singh was born on 25 June 1931, the third child of the Hindu Rajput zamindar family of Gaharwar clan, in a village which is located on the banks of the Belan River in the Allahabad district. He was adopted by Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh of Manda and became the heir-apparent. He became the Raja Bahadur of Manda at the age of 10 in 1941. His ancestors were rulers of the predecessor state of Manikpur, founded in 1180 by Raja Manik Chand, brother of Raja Jai Chand of Kannauj. His family belonged to the Gaharwal clan of the Manda Zamindar.
He obtained his education from Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun, and got his Bachelor of Arts and Law degree from Allahabad University. He was elected the vice president of Allahabad University Students Union and later received a Bachelor of Science in physics from Fergusson College in the Pune University.
Early political career Singh was elected from Soraon to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1969 as a member of the Congress Party and became the chief whip for the legislative party. He got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 and was appointed a Deputy Minister of Commerce by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974. He served as the Minister of Commerce in 1976–77.
Member of Lok Sabha He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1971 from Phulpur. He lost from Allahabad in 1977, but won in 1980 as member of Indian National Congress. He resigned from Lok Sabha when he became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in June 1980. After he resigned from Congress and quit as Rajya Sabha member in 1987, he entered Lok Sabha by winning the bye-poll for Allahabad seat vacated by Amitabh Bachchan.In August 1988, V. P. Singh won the by – election to the Lok Sabha from Allahabad, which had been vacated when Amitabh Bachchan. V. P. Singh won the seat against the Congress( I ) contender, Sunil Shastri, son of the late prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. () He was elected to Lok Sabha from Fatehpur in 1989 and became Prime Minister for 11 months. He was elected from Fatehpur again in 1991, the last time he contested any election.
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh He was appointed as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1980 when Indira Gandhi was re-elected after the Janata interlude. As Chief Minister (1980–82), he cracked down hard on dacoity, a problem that was particularly severe in the rural districts of the southwest Uttar Pradesh. He received much favourable national publicity when he offered to resign following a self-professed failure to stamp out the problem, and again when he personally oversaw the surrender of some of the most feared dacoits of the area in 1983. The Behmai massacre provoked outrage across the country thereby causing V. P. Singh to resign in the wake of the killings as he was the chief minister under whom Phoolan Devi surrendered as he saved her life by instructing the police officers to not kill her in a police encounter to secure the votes of Dalits (though Phoolan's 22 gang members were killed). Singh was an upper caste man and had ruled the vote bank of upper-caste people in Uttar Pradesh for the Indian National Congress. He resumed his post as Minister of Commerce in 1983.
Leader of Rajya Sabha After he resigned from the position of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he was appointed as the leader of Rajya Sabha in the year 1984 and remained so until 1987. Before him the position was assigned to Pranab Mukherjee, who was removed because he then formed his own party, Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress. After Singh's tenure this position was given to N. D. Tiwari. He resigned from Rajya Sabha when he left Congress in 1987.
Administerial skill He was considered very close to Rajiv Gandhi as well as Indira Gandhi and was loyal to them at a time when the experienced leaders of Congress Party founded a new party, Indian National Congress (Organisation), and empowered the party of Indian National Congress (Requisition). Singh was known as "Mr. Clean" because of his impeccable history and also because of his opposition for the corruption in Bofors deal, which lead the way for him to contest his own party to fight the 1989 Lok Sabha Election and become Prime Minister of India. Singh was responsible for managing the coalition of the Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Rajiv Gandhi to dethrone him in the 1989 elections. He is remembered for the important role that he played in 1989 that changed the course of Indian politics. Singh acted boldly by issuing an arrest warrant against L. K. Advani midway through the latter's Rath Yatra.. "The insult to injury was the Rath yatra of the BJP chief L. K. Advani a few weeks later V. P. Singh betrayed his helplessness when with all his secular credentials, he could not save government after stopping yatra."
Ministries under Central Government Singh has been on the list as one of the senior-most and most powerful leaders of the Indian National Congress and has held many important ministry positions such as Defence, External Affairs and Finance.
Minister of Finance (1984–1987) He was called to New Delhi following Rajiv Gandhi's mandate in the 1984 general election. Singh was appointed to the post of Finance Minister in the tenth Cabinet of India, where he oversaw the gradual relaxation of the License Raj (governmental regulation) as Gandhi had in mind. During his term as Finance Minister, he oversaw the reduction of gold smuggling by reducing gold taxes and giving the police a portion of the confiscated gold. He also gave extraordinary powers to the Enforcement Directorate of the Finance Ministry, the wing of the ministry charged with tracking down tax evaders, then headed by Bhure Lal. Singh's efforts to reduce government regulation of business and to prosecute tax fraud attracted widespread praise.
Following a number of high-profile raids on suspected evaders including Dhirubhai Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan – Gandhi was forced to sack him as Finance Minister, possibly because many of the raids were conducted on industrialists who had supported the Congress financially in the past.In May 1985, Singh suddenly removed the import of Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) from the Open General License category. As a raw material, this was very important to manufacture polyester filament yarn. This made it very difficult for Reliance Industries under Dhirubhai Ambani to carry on operations. Reliance was able to secure, from various financial institutions, letters of credit that would allow it to import almost one full year’s requirement of PTA on the eve of the issuance of the government notification changing the category under which PTA could be imported. However, Singh's popularity was at such a pitch that only a sideways move seemed to have been possible, to the Defence Ministry (in January 1987).In India, economic gains and new perils. The New York Times. (2 March 1987). Retrieved 14 September 2011. Then he succeeded his position to Rajiv Gandhi.
Minister of Defence (1987) In the year 1987, Singh was appointed on the position of Defence Minister of India for the first time but only for a period less than 3 months from 24 January 1987 to 12 April 1987. He was at that time preceded by Rajiv Gandhi and succeeded in his position by Krishna Chandra Pant. At that time due to his non-corrupt image, he was also called 'Mr. Clean'. He was not able to do any good work for Defence due to holding the position for such a short time. But his biggest work was in the import of Bofors. Once ensconced in South Block, Singh began to investigate the notoriously murky world of defence procurement. After a while, word began to spread that Singh possessed information about the Bofors defence deal (the infamous arms-procurement fraud) that could damage Gandhi's reputation.Indian Government Lodges First Charges In Weapons Scandal. The New York Times. (23 January 1990). Retrieved 14 September 2011. Before he could act on it, he was dismissed from the Cabinet and, in response, resigned his memberships in the Congress Party (Indira) and the Lok Sabha.Turmoil and a Scandal Take a Toll on Gandhi. The New York Times. (24 August 1987). Retrieved 14 September 2011. The deal of Bofors also played a very crucial role in making of his Prime Minister of India.
Minister of External Affairs (1989) He was appointed as the 16th Minister of External Affairs of India and remained in the position for another very short period of just 3 days from 2 December 1989 to 5 December 1989. He was succeeded by Inder Kumar Gujral for the position.
Formation of Janata Dal