Digvijay Singh (born 28 February 1947) is an
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n politician, a former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and a senior leader of the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
political party. He has been the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh state for two five-year terms. He first became Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on 7 December 1993 and continued to hold the post till Congress was voted out of power in the November 2003. He is currently a General Secretary of the
All India Congress CommitteeThe All India Congress Committee is the Presidium or central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress Party. It is composed of members elected from State-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousand members...
.
Early life
Digvijay Singh was born in the Raghogarh royal principality, in
Guna districtGuna district is one of the 50 districts of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Its administrative headquarters is Guna. The district has a population of 12,40,938...
of Madhya Pradesh. He is a Raghorarhi-
RajputA Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
by community. He was educated at
Daly CollegeThe Daly College, located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, was founded by Sir Henry Daly of the British Indian Army during India's colonial British Raj. It was established in 1881, and is one of the oldest co-educational boarding school in the world....
in
IndoreIndore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...
. He is also an alumnus of
Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and ScienceThe Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science is an engineering college in Indore, India. It was established in 1952 as a technical institute offering Licentiate and Diploma courses in engineering....
, where he completed a B.E. in engineering in 1968.
Political career
Digvijay Singh first became president of the Raghogarh municipal committee at the age of 22 years. He then joined the congress party in 1971. He contested his first assembly elections in 1977 for the congress party and became an MLA for the first time. He became a Minister of State and later a Cabinet Minister in the Madhya Pradesh state government led by
Arjun SinghArjun Singh was an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress party. He was the Union Minister of Human Resource Development in the Manmohan Singh cabinet from 2004 to 2009....
in 1980–84 going on to serve as the President of Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee in 1985. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1984 and 1991 from
Rajgarh constituencyRajgarh Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh state in central India. This constituency covers the entire Rajgarh district and parts of Guna and Shajapur districts.-Assembly segments:...
. In 1993 Digvijay Singh became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and then got re-elected for his second term as chief minister in 1998. He represented his hometown and constituency,
RaghogarhRaghogarh Vidhan Sabha constituency is one of the 230 Vidhan Sabha constituencies of Madhya Pradesh state in central India...
from 1977 to 1984 and then from 1993 to 2008 (where he served as the chief minister for 10 years from 1993 to 2003) in the State Assembly elections as well. During his ten year regime, Digvijay Singh pursued a reformist agenda with a focus on decentralisation of powers, and the empowerment of weaker sections. Social sector programmes like adult literacy, expansion of the primary school network, and reforms in the rural health sector got a boost during this period. A special effort was ostensibly made through the Bhopal Declaration 2003 to reach out to the Dalits. Defying anti-incumbency predictions, the Congress got another term in 1998 under his leadership.
Corruption charges
In 2001, during an
income taxAn income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
raid on a liquor manufacturer in
Bhopal, income tax authorities seized a diary maintained by the distillery's owners. They found the names of several officials and politicians of the state and their bribe money written against their names in the diary which reportedly also listed Digvijay Singh's name with a payment of 100 million rupees against it. Digvijay Singh was the chief minister at the time. Digvijay Singh said that this was a conspiracy by BJP and
NDAThe National Democratic Alliance is a centre-right coalition of political parties in India. At the time of its formation in 1998, it was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and had thirteen constituent parties. Its convenor is Sharad Yadav, and its honorary chairman is former prime minister Atal...
to destabilize his government.
In 2001, he appointed A.N.Singh as the Director-General of the State Police (DGP). A.N.Singh's name appeared prominently in the tell-tale diaries seized in a raid by the income tax authorities some months ago. When those diaries first made headlines, Singh was the state's additional DGP (Intelligence).
A
JhabuaJhabua is a town and a municipality in Jhabua district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Jhabua District.-History:...
court issued a warrant against Digvijay Singh and 14 others for alleged remarks on the 1998
Jhabua nuns rape caseThe Jhabua nuns rape case is a case of alleged rape of four nuns in the Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh in India in 1998 by a group of 24 tribals....
accusing Hindu organizations of being involved in the incident, following a civil defamation suit filed by a local lawyer. A
Bhopal court later cancelled the warrant after he appeared in person and furnished a surety bond for Rs. 5,000.
In 2004, the Madhya Pradesh Lok Ayukta registered an
FIRFIR or fir may refer to:*fir, a type of conifer tree*USCGC Fir, either of two buoy tenders of the United States Coast Guard*Fir , free ideal ring -Acronyms:* Falling In Reverse, a post-hardcore band...
in connection with a land scam in
IndoreIndore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...
under the Prevention of Corruption Act to probe allegations of criminal conspiracy and corruption against Digvijay Singh, and four others.
In 2009, an FIR was registered against Digvijay Singh by the
Uttar Pradesh PoliceUttar Pradesh Police is the police force of the state of Uttar Pradesh. UP Police is the largest police force in the world working under a single command.The Uttar Pradesh Police was formed in 1861 when the Indian Police Act came to be operational...
for allegedly making objectionable remarks against the then
Uttar PradeshUttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
Chief MinisterA Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...
MayawatiMayawati is the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India. She heads the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents the Bahujans or Dalits, the weakest strata of Indian society. This is her fourth term as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh...
during an election rally. On 12 February 2009, a case of cheating and corruption was filed against Digvijay Singh, a former state minister Choudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi and ten others by the Madhya Pradesh state Economic Offences Wing under various sections of the
Indian Penal CodeIndian Penal Code is the main criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code, intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. It was drafted in 1860 and came into force in colonial India during the British Raj in 1862...
and
Prevention of Corruption ActPrevention of Corruption Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and India relating to corruption and bribery.The Bill for an Act with this short title will have been known as a Prevention of Corruption Bill during its passage through Parliament.Prevention of...
for alleged irregularities in construction of the
Treasure Island Mall in Indore. On 20 April 2011, the Indore bench of the
Madhya Pradesh High CourtThe Madhya Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It was established as the Nagpur High Court on 2 January 1936 under the Government of India Act 1935. The Court was established in Nagpur, but after the reorganisation of states on 1 November 1956, it was moved to...
directed the Economic Offences Wing of Madhya Pradesh state to file a chargesheet against Digvijay Singh and 11 others for these alleged irregularities. The FIR was lodged against him at Mallwan police station in
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
for violating model code of conduct by making objectionable remarks during an election speech on April 2009.
In 2011 activist Agnivesh called for the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
to rein Digvijay in, stating that he was a burden to the party's image vis-a-vis corruption.
Criticism of Hindu groups
Digvijay Singh has consistently taken a public stance against Right-Wing Hindu Groups like the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak SanghRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the
Bajrang DalThe Bajrang Dal , a hardline and militant Hindu organization in India, is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and is based on the ideology of Hindutva. Founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, India, it has since spread throughout India...
accusing them of being involved in terrorist activities.
In December 2010, Digvijay Singh gave several interviews in the Media claiming that Mumbai ATS Chief Mr.
Hemant KarkareHemant Karkare was the chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks after being shot three times in the chest...
called him hours before he was killed, talking to him about threats to his (Karkare's) life from Hindu extremist groups.
Hemant KarkareHemant Karkare was the chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks after being shot three times in the chest...
in his role as chief of the Mumbai ATS had found incriminating evidence implicating several individuals with known RSS links and was facing a barrage of attacks including from right-wing politicians. During the same time U.S. Wikileaks cables quoted cables sent by the U.S. Ambassador about Congress party "playing religious politics" and "crass political opportunism” in plating doubts regarding Mr. Karkare's murder by Pakistani terrorists. A petition was filed in a local court against him, alleging that his remarks in connection with slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, was an attempt to whip up communal frenzy. However the
MaharashtraMaharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
government was unable to find any evidence that such a call occurred
Coming on the eve of the
WikiLeaksWikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
cables, this caused a lot of heat in the media. Digvijay repeated the allegations in his address to the Congress plenary session saying that the right-wing extremism of the kind perpetrated by the RSS and SIMI represented a grave threat to national unity. Equating the RSS to the Nazis he said 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. He accused the RSS of being involved in a number of terrorist strikes across the country. Further in the same speech, he demanded a CBI enquiry into the mysterious murder of Sunil Joshi, an RSS activist accused of being involved in the
Ajmer Dargah attackThe Ajmer Dargah attack occurred on 11 October 2007, outside the Dargah of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, after the Iftar period had started...
, alleging that Joshi was murdered because "he knew too much".
In a interview, Singh said that he was a better Hindu and followed Hinduism better than RSS.
Communalism
Observers have accused Digvijay Singh of adopting Islamist methods of propaganda for political purposes, in the form of "Goebbelsian propaganda"
[Digvijay Singh does what Islamists do! Daily Pioneer – 12 December 2010]
In the wake of the killing of
Osama Bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, Digvijay Singh stated that "even the worst of criminals should be buried or cremated according to their faith", calling him "Osama Ji" (Word to show respect in Hindi). This statement was criticized by senior members of the B J P as
communalThis article deals with the use of the word communalism in South Asia, as a name for a force separating different communities based on some form of social or sectarian discrimination...
and with an eye for pandering to the Muslim community
Digvijay Singh suggested that the
Batla House encounter caseBatla House encounter officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on 19 September 2008, against suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, in which two suspected terrorist, Atif Amin and Mohamed Sajid, two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan...
, which led to the death of two suspected terrorists and one police officer, was fake.
External links