“Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya and nobody can stop it”– this statement of Kalyan Singh proved prophetic. As the work on the Ram temple is underway in Ayodhya, Kalyan Singh, one of the icons of the Mandir Movement, will always be remembered for his contribution and unalloyed commitment to the cause of Hindutva.”
Ayodhya’s streets were splattered with dead bodies of the Kar sevaks and their blood. They were shot dead in cold blood by Mulayam Singh’s police, led by Subhash Joshi (later promoted as DG Police Uttarakhand ). Me and Balashankar, the then editor, Organiser, were in the Hanuman mandir area and suddenly saw Subhash Joshi facing us with a menacing smile. I do not know where we gathered strength and yelled at him- shoot us too like you shot these innocent Kar sevaks- you don’t have any shame? I have never used so many swear words that we use on his face. He vanished with some calculation.
Ayodhya was synonymous with daily battles and killings of the kar sewaks. Everyone forgot the caste, region, language. Every one had only Jai Shri Ram on their lips. Ashok ji Singhal, Shreesh Chandra Dixit, Acharya Giriraj Kishor, Vinay Katiar, and Lalloo Singh led the battle. Entering Ayodhya was made impossible by the brute forces of the state. All of them were Hindus, and all of them were fighting against Hindus alone.
Kalyan Singh rode to power in that charged and battle-ridden atmosphere, promising a temple at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi
His image was of a no-nonsense leader who was a hard taskmaster, neither rested leisurely nor allowed others to have one. He promised the Temple, and when asked in the national integration council meeting in Delhi to use toughest measures against Kar sevaks- by ‘secular-compassionate-human-rightists’, his categorical answer was- i will never use force or gun power against Karsewaks. Main Goli Nahin Chalaunga‘. All the shenanigans of the seculars fell flat. This pone line was the headline the next morning in media.
He lived to what he promised. There was tremendous pressure on him, and he was in the eyes of the storm that had taken over Ayodhya. People, unfortunately, have a short memory. It is unimaginable the savagery and barbarism Hindus had to pass through during the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement period at the hands of constitutionally elected governments.
Paying tributes to Kalyan Singh, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath said, “In Indian politics, he was synonymous with purity, transparency and public service. The death of such a respected organiser and popular mass leader Kalyan Singh ji is an irreparable loss for the entire nation.
Like Bengal today, the people who believed in Ram, Hindu Dharma, the sacred river Sarayu, were sought to be banished from their homes and villages.
So much was Ram Naam dreaded that there were incidents reported in newspapers that when the last journey of a Hindu was taken off, with Ram Naam Satya Hai chants, it was banned?
The force that enforced the ban was Hindu. The politician who ordered banning the Ram Naam chant was a Hindu.
As a RSS Swayamsevak and a democratically elected Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh saw that devotees of Ram remain unharmed and respected by the administration.
He was one of the ablest administrators. His personal integrity was beyond any doubt. He barely slept.
As Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he would come many times to Jhandewalan to meet Pujya Rajju Bhaiya, whom he held very high in his esteem.
Often, he would drop into the Panchjanya office to meet our staff and discuss the UP situation. The one thing that everyone remembers of those many interactions is that Temple will be built very soon.. No power on earth can stop it now. Duniya Ki Koi Taqat Mandir Banane Se Rok Nahin Sakto Tarun ji, Yeh Baat aap aaj yahan Panchjanya mein note kar lijiye.
He proved it too.
He saw to it that the bhumi pujan to Ram Mandir was done before his eyes.
What else can one seek from Bhagwan Ram to give him?
As a friend, philosopher and guide, I would have met him many times. Once, he said-Tarun ji, god has given me a unique blessing-if I am too tired and can have a brief nap on my chair for 15-2-minutes, I get up refreshed for the next many hours.
He slept for four hours, got up early morning at 4 am, finished his correspondence and days schedule fixation before going to the office.
He was large hearted.
Once, after Ayodhya reimagining, his grand Shobha Yatra was organised in Dehradun.
He came to know that my mother is not well, who was an ardent Ram Janmabhoomi worker. My home was in the way of his Shobha Yatra. He stopped the grand Yatra, winding its way majestically, near my home, got down, met my mother, prayed for her wellness, and resumed Yatra.
Who can forget that?
There would be thousands of such anecdotes with our workers across India.
After reimagining Ayodhya and the demolition of Babri’s black spot, he resigned and grew in stature.
In those moments, he was the tallest leader in India. Dwarfing all the BJP galaxy.
I attended one of his receptions or the main baudhiks in RSS shakha in Thiruvananthapuram.
He never allowed the glory, towering praises, to go to his head and become arrogant; as seen in many small-time leaders, he remained an innocent child.
During a BJP national executive, with Atal ji presiding it, the veteran columnist Sandhya Jain and I broached a very culinary subject-Kalyan Singh ji ( those days we called our leaders like this, not the present practice of sir ji, param mananiya or shraddhye kind of artificial hypocrisy)—there is a famous idly restaurant called Mavalli Tiffin Room, established in 1924. It serves the best idlis in the world-with green peas on silverware. Please come and enjoy.
Within a fraction of a second, he agreed. Imagine an entire battalion of security forces with us, entering MTR’s Bangalore restaurant, with three of us enjoying idly sambhar served in (those days in silverware).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Kalyan Singh and added, “Kalyan Singh ji’s parents named him Kalyan and he lived up to this name in the way he lived his life. All his life he worked towards jan kalyan or public welfare. He made jan kalyan his mantra for life. He dedicated his life to BJP and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh for an ideology and a bright future of the country.”
He was the most sought after, a popular leader amongst swayamsewaks.
Perhaps that was the first in RSS history that a political leader was invited to address swayamsewaks in a shakha on Shri Ram Janmabhoomi.
But as seers say, there are many ups and downs in the life of a tall leader.
So happened with Kalyan Singh. I was pleading with him just half an hour before his devastating press conference. But he won’t listen.
The credit for the resurrection and reestablishing the raj Kalyan Singh goes solely to Narendra Bhai. I can guarantee if Narendra Modi wasn’t around, the Kalyan Singh saga would have died midway.
Modi is that large-hearted leader with a vision of a seer who honoured and respected Kalyan Singh, gave him the respect he deserved, and bid him the final adieu with full honours.
Today when we see ugly anti- India conferences camouflaged as dismantling Hindutva, we remember Kalyan Singh all the more.
He was the real leader with a spine who saw that the Ram Temple movement reaches to its logical conclusion.
The real enemies of the nation’s civilisational aspirations are not Islamists but the in-house secular millionaires and Islamabadi media houses. They are the real de-Indianised columnists who feel India for meagre profits. Like those local chieftains who gave way to Ghazanavis and Ghoris for little material profits, these profiteering crowd masquerading as journalists remind one of the grand old days of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement when we had tall leaders like Kalyan Singh.
In fact it is no exaggeration to say that on August 5, 2020, when the nation’s Vikramaditya Narendra Modi laid the foundation of Ram Temple, under the gracious, benign blessings of the RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan ji Bhagwat, waited Kalyan Singh’s emergence in Lucknow for a new destiny.
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