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Late Vishvanath Pratap Singh was a humongous disaster as Prime Minister.

No one damaged India’s social fabric as much as VP Singh in his 11-month short tenure, spread the caste poison and pushed India a few decades back.

VP Singh’s tenure as PM was a bundle of contradictions, the intent was not there, and deceit was his secret weapon. His political career can be summed in 3 stages:

1. The Vanquisher,

2. The Compromiser, and

3. The Sectarian.

As FM in Rajiv’s cabinet, Singh realized that the Govt had degenerated from promise to putrefaction in 2-3 years.

He decided to take the battle head on – got IT Raids conducted against Dhirubhai Ambani & Amitabh Bachchan, and investigated the illegal stacking of forex overseas.

Rajiv removed him as FM and made Defense Minister when the Bofors scandal came to light. Singh resigned from the Congress, to form Jan Morcha, then Janata Dal by merging Jan Morcha, Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress (S), bringing together parties opposed to Rajiv Gandhi.

Amid bumper stickers, slogans and graffiti of “RAJIV GANDHI CHOR HAI” slogan, a coalition of Janata Dal, DMK, TDP, AGP was formed as NATIONAL FRONT – a curious mix of socialists, left and right. He used social justice carrots for Jyoti Basu and national security for L.K. Advani.

VP Singh was chosen the PM through a last-minute backroom conspiracy with Devi Lal against Chandra Shekhar.

He had repeatedly said he’d never accept the PMship. But he gained it as co-conspirator – that marked the decline of Singh’s image – his most powerful political weapon.

VP Singh faced his 1st crisis within few days of taking office, when Kashmiri militants kidnapped the daughter of his Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. His Govt released militants in exchange.

Next the Hindus of Kashmir were forced to flee the valley by Jehadi Islamists.

Singh was able to manage the contradictions within the party; Left and BJP; and chose a title for self – manager of contradictions acceptable to a cross section of society.

In record time, the manager slid from managing to compromise to confusion to petty sectional politicking.

The fall furthered with the massive rigging during the Meham (Haryana) by-election resulting in countermanding of the election.

In order to save his son, Devi Lal threatened to resign but Singh pleaded with him not to and allowed Chautala to continue as CM of Haryana.

That’s where VP Singh failed, first.

Unable to deal with the challenges posed by Devi Lal & Chandra Shekhar, in the process of making one compromise after another, he found himself sucked into the cesspool of sectional politics of his own party… and couldn’t rise above them.

VP Singh would say different things to different people to appease.

A Muslim member of his Cabinet told him: “You can’t have it both ways. Today, you’ve bowed before fundamentalists like Bukhari & Azam Khan, tomorrow you will lick the feet of Ashok Singhal and Bahurao Deoras.”

Havoc broke loose in the party. Several ministers resigned to force VP Singh into abiding the ethics he always professed. The public stood behind when he sacked Devi Lal, hoping that now he’d get on with the business of governance.

He could’ve cashed in on, but he blew it.

A day before Devi Lal’s rally in Delhi, VP Singh exploded the Mandal bomb. Even those who believed in the decision, cast aspersions the dubious timing – a vote bank ploy intended to finish Devi Lal.

Arguments that national integration would suffer a setback were brushed aside.

This move was met with strong protest from students, bureaucrats and teachers across cities – and took an ugly turn when a Delhi University student Rajeev Goswami set himself on fire. This resulted in students immolating themselves across Indian Universities.

The absence of public display of any human reaction to the protesting students, shocked the nation.

His calculations couldn’t cancel the big negative: LOSS OF IMAGE!

I was in high school when we suddenly learnt that you could tell a person’s caste from their surnames. Till then a name was just a name- at least in Jamshedpur.

The Indians have still not been able to completely put the ugly genie that was released by VPS back into the bottle.

Sharad Yadav said: “With Mandal we have made sure that Hindus will never unite.”

The BJP saw an opportunity to consolidate it and the party organized a rath yatra to push its Ram Mandir agenda, resulting in the arrest of Advani, for disturbing peace & creating communal tension.

BJP withdrew support from VP Singh’s Govt. It fell with no-confidence in the House, losing the majority 142-346.

Like RahulG, VP Singh’s strategy was also to derive political mileage out of blunders and failed compromises.

But a great nation and little minds go ill together.

In continued political oblivion, VP Singh died on 27th Nov, 2008 in Mumbai when it was under siege. No one noticed.

Not even a stamp has been released in his’s memory, a oversight considering how his actions impacted the political and social history of contemporary India.

India faces the same choices again as the Casteist, Sectarian forces are trying to dominate the national scene.

Will the Janta, so divisively exploited their politics, vote to further the same tendencies, or choose to usher in a new climate of unity, prosperity, and stability?