V P Singh’s entry in Indian Political scenario was very much like Arvind Kejriwal. He was a self-styled anti-corruption crusader. While Arvind Kejriwal grew political fangs later on, V.P Singh’s intentions were highly political right from the moment he started crusading against corruption. V P Singh was revered as a revolutionary across India who exposed Rajiv Gandhi’s involvement in Bofors scandal. As a result of that he was able to generate a lot of resentment against Congress.
Let us have a look at V P Singh’s achievements and failures:
Achievment1 – He was largely successful in projecting Rajiv Gandhi as the ultimate baddie
Achievement2 – He was dismissed from Rajiv’s cabinet and within no time he had popular support too
Achievement3 – V P Singh started a new party called ‘Jan Morcha’ in 1987 to fight against corruption
Achievement4 – He skillfully created a coalition front called ‘National Front’, where Left and BJP stayed in a state of peace and mutual accord. Quite a feat.
Achievement5 – In spite of securing just 143 seats (54 less that Congress), V P Singh was able to form government. His ally management skills were outstanding.
When V P Singh occupied the top seat of the nation, his lack of conviction, lack of planning and lack of willpower to execute came out in the open:
Failure1 – While he won elections on promise of eradicating corruption, he did nothing to stop or even minimize corruption
Failure2 – Economy dwindled in his regime, Foreign exchange reserve went down to a dangerous level
Failure3 – India joined the global list of ‘debt defaulters’.
Failure4 – He imposed Mandal Commission report through which socially backward castes called ‘Other Backward classes (OBC)’ were given 27% reservation. This led to massive protests and incidents of self-immolations. This was by far the biggest reservation exercise and was widely criticized. It is an issue till date.
Failure5 – He couldn’t avert the arrest of Advani who undertook a ‘Rath Yatra’ from Somnath to Ayodhya. It is also alleged that he conspired his arrest. This led to cracks in the coalition and ultimately the fall of his Government.
So we see while V P Singh was a brilliant politician and was excellent at negotiations and ally management. He was a complete dud when it came to implementations of his so called plans. He was the flag bearer of communal and divisive politics. He gave populism more preference than actual work. He was the favorite of cartoonists of his era who mocked at his idiotic foreign policies and outdated economic vision. He literally bankrupted India and snatched opportunities from the hands of deserving students.
V P Singh , the self proclaimed anti corruption crusader is one PM of India that History will never remember for any good reasons.