Digvijaya Singh: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Indian politician}}

{{EngvarB|date=May 2014}}

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{{Infobox Indian politician

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1947|2|28|df=y}}

'''Digvijaya Singh''' (born 28 February 1947) is an [[Indian politician]] and a  [[Member of Parliament]] in the [[Rajya Sabha]]. He is also currently a General Secretary of the [[Indian National Congress]] party's [[All India Congress Committee]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Office Bearers |url=http://www.aicc.org.in/index.php/officebearers#.UeSDOc6YNBk |publisher=Congress Working Committee (CWC) |access-date=16 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703153629/http://aicc.org.in/index.php/officebearers |archive-date=3 July 2013 }}</ref> Previously, he had served as the 14th [[Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh]], a central Indian state, for two terms from 1993 to 2003. Prior to that he was a minister in Chief Minister [[Arjun Singh (politician, born 1930)|Arjun Singh]]'s cabinet between 1980–84. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections he was defeated by [[Pragya Singh Thakur]] for [[Bhopal]] Lok Sabha seat.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://results.eci.gov.in/pc/en/constituencywise/ConstituencywiseS1219.htm?ac=19|title=GENERAL ELECTION TO LOK SABHA TRENDS & RESULT 2019|website=ECI|date=24 May 2019|access-date=3 June 2019}}</ref>

The sacred Narmada River, the lifeline of Central India, is worshipped as Narmada maiyya (mother) or Ma Rewa (derived from “rev” meaning leaping one). One of the five holy rivers of India, it is the only one which has the tradition of being circumambulated from source to sea and back, on a pilgrimage or yatra.

Being the longest west-flowing river, the Narmada parikrama is a formidable spiritual exercise and challenge—an incredible journey of about 3,300&nbsp;km.{{<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/mp/inspire-me/culture/narmada-parikrama-great-circumambulation/ |title = Narmada Parikrama: The Great Circumambulation}}</ref>}}

Digvijaya Singh along with his wife started the Narmada Parikrama on 30 September 2017, from Barman Ghat, on banks of river Narmada after taking the blessing of his spiritual guru  Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati ji.{{<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/state/madhya-pradesh/other-cities/at-70-digvijay-singh-to-start-3300-km-six-months-long-narmada-parikrama/articleshow/60894403.cms|title=दिग्विजय सिंह ने शुरू की 3,300 किलोमीटर लम्बी नर्मदा परिक्रमा|website=Navbharat Times|access-date=19 March 2020}}</ref>}} The journey took them from Barman Ghat, on River Narmada southern banks, all the way to its mouth at Bharuch in Gujarat. At Bharuch, Mithi Talai is the point where the Narmada joins the Arabian Sea. Here they took a motorboat from the southern to the northern end and begin the return journey along its northern bank. On 9 April 2018 they completed the narmada parikrama at Barman Ghat having covered {{convert|3300|km|mi}} by foot in 192 days.{{<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.firstpost.com/india/digvijay-singh-concludes-six-month-long-narmada-yatra-in-madhya-pradeshs-narsinghpur-4424827.html | title=Digvijay Singh concludes six-month-long 'Narmada Yatra' in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur}}</ref>}}

Singh was president of the Raghogarh [[Nagar palika]] (a municipal committee) between 1969 and 1971.<ref name="Member's Profile, 10th Lok Sabha" /> An offer in 1970 from [[Vijayaraje Scindia]] for him to join the Jana Sangh was not taken up and he subsequently joined the Congress party.<ref>{{cite news|agency=PTI |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/I-had-an-offer-to-join-Jana-Sangh-in-1970-Digvijay-/articleshow/5185792.cms |title=I had an offer to join Jana Sangh in 1970: Digvijay |work=The Times of India|date=1 November 2009 |access-date=13 June 2010}}</ref> He became a [[Member of the Legislative Assembly (India)|Member of the Legislative Assembly]] (MLA) as the party's representative for the [[Raghogarh (Vidhan Sabha constituency)|Raghogarh Vidhan Sabha constituency]] of the [[Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly]] in the 1977 elections.<ref name="General Elections of MP 1977">{{cite web |url=http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/StatisticalReports/SE_1977/Statistical%20Report%201977%20Madhya%20Pradesh.pdf|title=General Elections of MP 1977 |publisher=Election Commission of India |year=2004 |page=4}}</ref> This was the same constituency that his father had won in 1951 as member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) as independent candidate for the Raghogarh Vidhan Sabha constituency following the 1951 elections.<ref name="auto"/> Digvijaya was later re-elected from the Raghogarh constituency and became a Minister of State and later a Cabinet Minister in the [[Government of Madhya Pradesh|Madhya Pradesh state government]] led by [[Arjun Singh (politician, born 1930)|Arjun Singh]], whom he has called his mentor,<ref name="bs20120617" /> between 1980–84.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kumar |first1=Anurag |title=Madhya Pradesh elections 2018: Who is Digvijaya Singh |url=https://www.indiatvnews.com/elections/madhya-pradesh-assembly-elections-madhya-pradesh-elections-2018-who-is-digvijaya-singh-489372 |access-date=28 November 2019 |work=[[India TV]] |date=4 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Hindi Belt]], of which Madhya Pradesh is a part, has a significant number of economically and socially disadvantaged [[Dalit]] and [[Tribals in Madhya Pradesh|tribal]] communities. Through his policies, which have evoked both strong support and criticism among academics, Singh targeted the prospects of those people during his first term in office. These efforts attempted to arrest the declining support for the INC by those communities, who since the 1960s had increasingly been favouring the [[Bahujan Samaj Party]] (BSP), the Jana Sangh and its political successor, the BJP. He followed the example set by Arjun Singh in taking this approach, which was not adopted in other areas of the Belt such as [[Bihar]] and [[Uttar Pradesh]]. Sudha Pai says, "He was driven by both the political imperative to sustain the base of the party among these social groups and&nbsp;... a commitment to improving their socio-economic position." The "Dalit Agenda" that resulted from the [[Bhopal Conference]] in 2002 epitomised the strategy, which by Digvijaya Singh's time was more necessary than during Arjun Singh's period in power because one outcome of the [[Mandal Commission]] had been increased Dalit desires for self-assertion. His approach to reform in what was still largely a feudal society was driven by a top-down strategy to achieve Dalit and Tribal support, as opposed to the bottom-up strategy of other belt leaders such as [[Mayawati]] , who lacked Singh's upper caste/class status and harnessed the desire for empowerment in the depressed communities through [[identity politics]]. Among the measures introduced to achieve his aim were the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), redistribution of common grazing land (''charnoi'') to landless dalits and tribals, free electricity for farmers, the promotion of [[Panchayati Raj]] as a means of delegating power to villagers and a supplier diversity scheme which guaranteed that thirty percent of government supplies would be purchased from the disadvantaged groups. There was less emphasis than previously on methods of assistance that were focused on [[Reservation in India|reservation of jobs]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Developmental State and the Dalit Question in Madhya Pradesh: Congress Response |first=Sudha |last=Pai |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781136197857 |pages=11–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTeF4sMIlZQC&pg=PA11}}</ref><ref name="Phadnis2009">{{cite book |title=Business Standard Political Profiles of Cabals and Kings |editor-first=Aditi |editor-last=Phadnis |editor-link=Aditi Phadnis |publisher=Business Standard Books |year=2009 |isbn=9788190573542 |pages=194–195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qT7QvviGoJsC&pg=PA194}}</ref>{{efn|The grazing land was redistributed in two phases, in 1998 and 2001, and saw the proportion such land in the state fall from 7.5 per cent to 2 per cent of total area, with the difference being given to landless agricultural labourers. The value of the transferred land was {{INRConvert|3750|c|year=2001|to=USD EUR GBP}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Tribal Livelihood Options: Socio-Ecological Changes, State Intervention and Sustainable Development |first1=D. K. |last1=Verma |first2=A. |last2=Sohrot |title=Tribal Development Since Independence |editor-first=Shyam Nandan |editor-last=Chaudhary |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=2009 |isbn=9788180696220 |page=182 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBX1EJVhjGEC&pg=PA182}}</ref>}}

 

Returning to the Raghogarh constituency for the 1998 elections,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.empoweringindia.org/new/constituency.aspx?eid=708&cid=31 |title=Raghogarh Assembly Election 1998, Madhya Pradesh |publisher=The Liberty Institute |access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref> Singh was re-elected and appointed by [[Sonia Gandhi]] to serve a second term as chief minister.<ref>{{cite book |title=Developmental State and the Dalit Question in Madhya Pradesh: Congress Response |first=Sudha |last=Pai |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781136197857 |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTeF4sMIlZQC&pg=PA115}}</ref> Census data suggests that Singh's education reforms had become a particularly successful aspect of his government. Those reforms included the construction of thousands of new village schools under the EGS, and may have been significant in increasing the literacy rate in Madhya Pradesh from 45 per cent in 1991 to 64 per cent in 2001. The improvement among girls was particularly high, growing from 29 per cent to 50 per cent.<ref name="Widmalm2008">{{cite book |title=Decentralisation, Corruption and Social Capital: From India to the West |first=Sten |last=Widmalm |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2008 |isbn=9780761936640 |pages=75–76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OlxModpUp0MC&pg=PA75}}</ref>{{efn|Singh has claimed that 24,000 new schools were opened in the state during his time as Chief Minister.<ref name="Widmalm2008" /> 26,571 habitations gained a school according to the [[Planning Commission (India)|Planning Commission]].<ref name="Manor2004">{{cite journal |journal=India Seminar |first=James |last=Manor |url=http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/534/534%20james%20manor.htm |date=February 2004 |title=Congress Defeat in MP}}</ref>}} In his second term as Chief Minister, Singh sought to extend his decentralising, socially beneficial ideas by instituting reforms in healthcare that would guarantee a minimum level of care at [[panchayat]] level by financing the training of locally nominated healthcare professionals. This mirrored his earlier efforts in education and was known as the Healthcare Guarantee Scheme.<ref>{{cite book |title=Decentralisation, Corruption and Social Capital: From India to the West |first=Sten |last=Widmalm |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2008 |isbn=9780761936640 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OlxModpUp0MC&pg=PA86}}</ref>

Singh won the Raghogarh constituency again in 2003<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.empoweringindia.org/new/constituency.aspx?eid=203&cid=31 |title=Raghogarh Assembly Election 2003, Madhya Pradesh |publisher=The Liberty Institute |access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref> but his party overall was heavily defeated by the BJP, as it also was in [[Rajasthan]] and Chhattisgarh.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The BJP and the 2004 general election |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot |title=Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism |editor1-first=Katharine |editor1-last=Adeney |editor2-first=Lawrence |editor2-last=Saez |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=9781134239795 |page=237}}</ref> The defeat in Madhya Pradesh has been attributed in large part to deadlocks in the pursuit of development that had arisen as the Panchayati Raj and central government squabbled about the extent of their respective powers, and to frequent electrical [[power cuts]]. The latter resulted from thirty-two percent of what had been the generation capacity of Madhya Pradesh now being in the new state of Chhattisgarh: while Chhattisgarh did not need all of that capacity, much of it had historically been used in the remainder of Madhya Pradesh, which now found itself having only around 50 percent of the power that it required. [[Aditi Phadnis]], a political journalist and author, also notes that in 1985, the state had been producing a surplus of electricity through a process of technical and administrative efficiency that was the envy of other areas and that then "The State Electricity Board began to be looked upon as a milch cow by successive politicians, Digvijay Singh included." Power was given away and no money was set aside for repairs and maintenance.<ref name="Phadnis2009" /> One of Singh's last proposals while in office was to write-off the electricity bills of 1.2 million people over the preceding three years.  In this, he was thwarted by the [[Election Commission of India]], which ruled the proposal to be a breach of election rules.<ref>{{cite book |title=Can Good Economics Ever be Good Politics?: Case Study of the Power Sector in India |first=Sumir |last=Lal |publisher=World Bank Publications |year=2006 |isbn=9780821366813 |pages=23–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4ygfk0_8m4C}}</ref> Singh had claimed that it was desirable because the farmers of the state&nbsp;— who needed electricity to power water pumps<ref name="Manor2004" />&nbsp;— had suffered three years of [[Drought in India|drought conditions]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Digvijay files papers from Raghogarh |date=15 November 2003 |url=http://www.hindu.com/2003/11/15/stories/2003111507230500.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040204012551/http://www.hindu.com/2003/11/15/stories/2003111507230500.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 February 2004 |work=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref>

Singh has said that the right-wing extremism of the kind he said is perpetrated by the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS) and [[Students Islamic Movement of India]] (SIMI) represented a grave threat to national unity. He equated RSS to the Nazis stating that "The RSS, in the garb of its nationalist ideology, is targeting Muslims the same way Nazis targeted Jews in the 1930s". Israel had taken grave exception to this comment.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Israel-protests-comparison-of-RSS-with-Nazis/articleshow/7134726.cms |title=Israel protests comparison of RSS with Nazis |work=The Times of India|date=21 December 2010 |access-date=8 August 2013}}</ref> He accused the RSS of being involved in a number of terrorist strikes across the country. He demanded a CBI enquiry into the murder of Sunil Joshi, an RSS activist accused of being involved in the [[Ajmer Dargah attack]], alleging that Joshi was murdered because "he knew too much".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.zeenews.com/news675416.html |title=Cong plenary to seek probe into right-wing terror |date=19 December 2010 |publisher=Zee News |access-date=8 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220093325/http://www.zeenews.com/news675416.html |archive-date=20 December 2010 }}</ref>

[[Category:10th Lok Sabha members]]

[[Category:8th Lok Sabha members]]