Remembering: Mr Clean - V P Singh

By Neha Singh

VP Singh can be remembered as the champion of social justice.

Two abiding images of former prime minister V P Singh will survive his death. One is personal and the other is political. In personal conviction and conduct he was among the most incorruptible of politicians and acquired the name of Mr Clean, ironically because cleanliness was becoming a rare quality among politicians in the 1980s. His split with Rajiv Gandhi and parting of ways with the Congress came as a result of a conflict between this personal conviction and the party’s interests, as exemplified in the handling of the Bofors case.

It would be uncharitable to view his revolt as an opportunistic gambit for power and betrayal of the party because rectitude was an article of faith with him. If he acquired an additional sheen to his halo after the Congress expelled him, it was because the Bofors issue had struck a popular chord. He was only in tune with the times, and the rise in stature and the Prime Ministership that followed was only collateral.

The political persona of VP Singh is as the champion of social justice after he accepted the Mandal Commission report on reservations for backward classes. This act of social engineering may not have been devoid of political considerations but he changed the political discourse in the country forever. It would be unfair to dub politics as the only driving force of his move to find a new social equation for politics.

The empowerment of a marginalised class was only an extension of the idea of representative democracy. He sought a new social equilibrium for politics not just in terms of caste empowerment but on the basis of regional aspirations also. It was his tenure as Prime Minister that saw the emergence of regional parties as major forces in national politics. This was also part of the natural evolution of politics in the country and he was perceptive enough to feel the undercurrents.

VP Singh will be seen as one of the transformational figures of Indian politics, firmly rooted in an old world of values like secularism, and opening up a new world of different political values. It was perhaps his artistic imagination that helped him to integrate these worlds in himself.