Rajnath Singh (Hindi pronunciation: [ɾɑːd͡ʒnɑːt̪ʰ sɪŋɡʱ] ; born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician and lecturer who has served as the 29th Minister of Defence since 2019 and as the Deputy Leader of the House, Lok Sabha since 2014. He is a Member of Parliament from Lucknow since 2014. He previously served as the 25th Union Minister of Home Affairs in the first Modi ministry from 2014 to 2019, making him the first person born after Indian independence to hold the office. He was President of the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2014. Singh is a veteran leader of the BJP who started his career as a swayamsevak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Singh previously served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2000 to 2002 and a Cabinet Minister for Road Transport and Highways in the Vajpayee Government from 1999 to 2000 and the minister of Agriculture from 2003 to 2004. He was the President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 1988 to 1990. He was a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Haidergarh constituency twice. He previously represented Ghaziabad in the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 2002 to 2008 and from 1994 to 2001.
Rajnath Singh was born in Bhabhaura village of Chandauli district, Uttar Pradesh to father Ram Badan Singh and mother Gujarati Devi. He was born into a family of farmers. He received his primary education from a local school of his village and went on to secure a master's degree in physics, acquiring first division results from Gorakhpur University. From childhood he was inspired by the ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He worked as a lecturer of physics at K.B. Post-Graduate College Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. He also has a brother, Jaipal Singh.
Singh had been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since 1964, at the age of 13 and remained connected with the organisation. He also became Shakha Karyavah (General Secretary) of Mirzapur in the year 1972. After 2 years in the year 1974, he entered politics. Between 1969 and 1971 he was the organizational secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (the student wing of the RSS) in Gorakhpur. He became the general secretary of the RSS's Mirzapur branch in 1972. In 1974, he was appointed secretary for the Mirzapur unit of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, predecessor of Bharatiya Janata Party. In 1975, aged 24, Singh was appointed District President of the Jana Sangh.
In the 1970s, Singh was influenced by the JP Movement of Jayaprakash Narayan. He was also arrested in the year 1975 during the state of National Emergency for associating with JP Movement and was detained for a time period of 2 years.
After being released from jail, Singh joined the Janata Party founded by Jayprakash Narayan and contested legislative assembly elections from Mirzapur in 1977. He successfully fought the election and was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly from Mirzapur.
At that time he gained the popularity in state politics and then joined BJP in the year 1980 and was one of the initial members of the Party. He became the State President of the BJP youth wing in 1984, the National general secretary in 1986 and the National President in 1988. He was also elected into the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.
Education Minister (1991–1992)
In 1991, when the Bharatiya Janata Party formed its first government in Uttar Pradesh under chief minister Kalyan Singh, he was appointed education minister of Uttar Pradesh. He held the education portfolio for a tenure of two years. Major highlights of his tenure as education minister included the controversial Anti-Copying Act, 1992, which made copying a non-bailable offence, modernising science texts, and incorporating vedic mathematics into the curriculum.
Singh helped push the controversial Anti-Copying Act in response to perceived widespread cheating in schools and colleges in Uttar Pradesh. when Mulayam Singh Yadav became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, heading Bahujan Samaj Party in the year 1993 he repealed the Act.
Modernising the education system
In 1991, Singh led a partial rewrite of history textbooks used in government schools and introduced vedic mathematics into the curriculum. Seen as loyal to the RSS, a Hindu nationalist organisation, Singh's changes to state education policy were widely perceived to have been motivated by his RSS affiliation and ideological kinship with the organisation's leadership. As minister, he also focused on promoting the usage of Indian languages instead of English in courses and instruction. At the same time, he stated his appreciation for knowledge of modern languages.
Union Transport Minister (1999–2000)
In April 1994, he was elected into the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament) and became involved with the Advisory Committee on Industry (1994–96), Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Agriculture, Business Advisory Committee, House Committee and the Committee on Human Resource Development. On 25 March 1997, he became the President of the BJP's Uttar Pradesh unit and in 1999 became the Union Cabinet Minister for Surface Transport.
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (2000–02)
In 2000, he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and was twice elected as MLA from Haidergarh in 2001 and 2002. He was preceded by Ram Prakash Gupta and succeeded by Mayawati after 56 days of President's rule. He was also the last chief minister of Undivided U.P. Contributing to his appointment as state minister were his prior experience as education minister and his grassroots support from his involvement in the anti-corruption JP Movement in the 1970s. At that time there also many leaders in BJP from Uttar Pradesh, but very few had a strong support at the ground level. He was at that time very much close to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and had a very clean image among the people of the State. He also popular among Rajputs (Thakur), a significant community in the state, like Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Even unlike, L. K. Advani and Kalyan Singh, he was not a leader of Firebrand Hindutva ideology and was a very soft-spoken person.
Notable reforms as chief minister
As chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he accused the Samajwadi Party of favouring certain communities for jobs. Singh had said that discrimination in job opportunities should end in the state. He tried to rationalise the reservation structure in government jobs by introducing the most Backward Classes among the OBC and SC, so that the reservation system could favour those at the bottom of society.