Rajasthan Governor and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, had never wanted the demolition of the Babri Masjid, according to Anil Swarup, former aide of Mr. Singh and retired IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre.
“I am absolutely convinced — this is where my value judgment comes — in terms of my association with Kalyan Singh, that he never wanted the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The reason was simple. He would know the consequences of the demolition of the Babri Masjid,” Mr. Swarup told The Hindu on Thursday. He was responding to a query whether he, in his recent book Not Just A Civil Servant , had sought to give the impression that Mr. Singh wanted to safeguard the structure.
The author, who was in Chennai on Wednesday to promote his book, served as Director of Information and Public Relations, when Mr. Singh was the U.P. Chief Minister during June 1991 to December 1992.
According to the book, Mr. Singh was “livid and crestfallen” on December 6, 1992 when he came to know that the structure had been brought down.
‘Was upset with party’
Mr. Singh, in a telephonic talk with the then Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, had “reflected his angst against the party leadership.” He had also spoken to L.K. Advani, who was in Ayodhya then.
To a query, Mr. Swarup claimed that he was “the only person” with Mr. Singh when the conversations took place. Mr. Singh’s objective as Chief Minister was to build Uttar Pradesh and not to get dismissed over an event such as the Babri Masjid demolition, Mr. Swarup said.
The author, who served as Coal Secretary and School Education Secretary in the Union government before his retirement in June 2018, remembered how the former U.P. Chief Minister, in his interactions with groups, would quote the example of Aswan dam in Egypt where mosques were lifted and positioned elsewhere. He would even blame Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal for causing “all the damage” that the country was suffering.
Asked why Mr. Singh had never gone on record, even when he was out of the BJP in two spells in the last 20 years and despite an “indicting deposition” by former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao before the Liberhan Commission probing the demolition and the panel’s conclusions of Mr. Singh’s role in the incident, Mr. Swarup said: “I am speaking of what I saw first hand.”
“Let people draw their own conclusions,” Mr. Swarup added.
