Kalyan Singh, Who Quit as UP CM After Babri Demolition, Wanted to Live Till Ram Temple Was Built

The fall of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, was a defining moment in Kalyan Singh’s life. Within hours of kar sevaks demolishing it, the veteran leader quit as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh owning moral responsibility.

Maybe it was destined that the structure would be demolished with me as chief minister, he told a newspaper ahead of the 2020 bhoomi pujan for the Ram temple, according to a PTI report.

The temple is now being built at the once disputed site in Ayodhya after a historic Supreme Court verdict. Had there been no demolition, probably the courts too would have ordered status quo, he said then. And his last wish, he said, was to live till the temple comes up.

Singh, a Hindutva icon and a Bharatiya Janata Party veteran, died at a Lucknow hospital on Saturday. He was 89. Hailed by many for his administrative acumen during his two stints as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, the influential backward caste leader from western UP parted ways twice with the BJP and has briefly also floated his own outfits.

A year after he became the first BJP chief minister of the country’s most populous state, the Babri Masjid was demolished as the Sangh Parivar campaign to build the temple at the same spot picked momentum. As UP’s chief minister, Singh had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, assuring that the 16th-century mosque will be protected. But he had also ordered police not to open fire at protesters, arguing later that any such action would have led to much bloodshed.

Admitting failure to protect the mosque, he resigned the same evening. The state assembly was dissolved as riots erupted at several places in the country. In the next assembly elections in November 1993, he contested from two seats —- Atrauli and Kasganj — and won both.

Singh was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences here on the evening of July 4 due to an infection and reduced consciousness levels. Before being shifted to the PGI, the former chief minister was undergoing treatment at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow.

(With PTI inputs)

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.