FORMER MINISTER, EMINENT FARMER LEADER AJIT SINGH DIES OF COVID-19
NEW DELHI: Former Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh died at a Gurgaon hospital on Thursday morning while undergoing treatment for Covid-19, his family said. He was 82.
Singh, a prominent farmer leader and the son of former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, tested positive for Covid-19 on April 20, his son Jayant Chaudhary tweeted.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, defence minister Rajnath Singh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among several leaders who condoled the death of Singh.
LUCKNOW: The last time I spoke to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) founder president Ajit Singh was on January 29. This was the time when the farmers’ protests against the Centre’s three agricultural laws were in full swing, and he was vocally supporting the agitation.
During the course of the conversation, I enquired about his health since he was not keeping well then and he quickly referred to his age suggesting that he was too old now. I told him the age was just a state of mind and that he was still “young and agile”. He laughed in agreement.
In the interview he readily gave to me, Singh spoke on issues related to farmers—the issues that were always close to his heart. The interview that appeared in the HT on January 30 was perhaps the last one that he gave to any mainstream media organisation. On Thursday, there came the news of his passing away in a Gurugram private hospital where he had been battling Covid-19. He was 82.
“Chaudhary Ajit Singh ji was diagnosed as Covid+ on the 20th of April. He battled his condition till the very end and breathed his last today morning, the 6th of May 2021. Throughout his life journey, Chaudhary Sahib was loved and respected by many. He, in turn, cherished this bond with all of you and gave his best consideration and efforts for our welfare,” his family said in a statement.
“As our nation confronts the horrific pandemic, it is our humble request to all those who wish to pay their respects, to please stay at home as far as possible. We must observe all safety protocols to keep ourselves and everyone around us healthy and safe. This would be the best way to honour Chaudhary Sahib as well as all those COVID warriors who are working night and day to protect us,” the statement said.
His son and RLD vice-president Jayant Chaudhary had been informing people about his father’s serious conditions through tweets for quite some time. (The mortal remains were cremated at Gurugram’s Madanpuri electric crematorium around 1pm with only a few family members, including son Jayant Chaudhary, in attendance, due to the pandemic restrictions, according to a PTI report).
His death marks an end of the rich legacy he inherited from his father, a popular farmer leader and the late Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. Ajit Singh was a seven-time Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. He founded the Rashtriya Lok Dal in 1996. The party has a strong presence in the western Uttar Pradesh region. Ajit Singh was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 1986. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Baghpat in 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004 and 2009.
He served as a union minister on multiple occasions, the first being minister for industry in 1989 in the National Front government led by VP Singh and the last being civil aviation minister from 2011 to 2014 in the UPA government.
Born on February 12, 1939, Ajit Singh obtained a B.Tech (Computer Science) from IIT-Kharagpur and MS from the Illinois Institute of Technology. A computer scientist by profession, Singh was one of the first Indians to work with IBM in the 1960s. He worked as a computer scientist in the US for 15 years before he took a plunge in politics to fill the vacuum created by the death of his father in 1987.
Singh, however, had to fight against Mulayam Singh Yadav to lay claim to his father’s political legacy in Uttar Pradesh. Ajit Singh never had amicable relations with Yadav, who was a strong contender to his mentor Chaudhary Charan Singh’s political legacy.
He started his political career with the Lok Dal and later allied with the Congress, the BJP and the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.
An astute politician, he switched sides as and when he found it to be politically expedient and hence headed important ministries at the Centre under almost all the governments till the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which sent him and his party into the political wilderness.
“Ajit Singh was a champion of the cause of farmers and rural development. The void created by his death will be impossible to fill,” RLD national spokesman Anil Dubey said.