Seventeen years after he allegedly conspired with Bharatiya Janata Party top brass and the Sangh Parivar to demolish the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Kalyan Singh has suddenly realized that he was responsible for it. What a joke!

If Kalyan Singh wants to join the Samajwadi Party to take it out on the Bharatiya Janata Party which used and abused him, it is fine. But, he should not even attempt to convince the Indian people that he has a secular frame of mind.

Kalyan Singh rode to glory on the crest of Babri Masjid demolition. He became the poster boy and mascot of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar because of that. That he was neglected and dumped thereafter is a matter of politics. That is how people like Kalyan Singh are treated by the party and the family he chose to be in. That he could not read them in good time is a problem of his own making.

Who says Kalyan Singh is the only chief minister who has been treated that way. Madan Lal Khurana had the taste of this bitter medicine in Delhi. For some strange reason both of them chose to return to the party after moving out of it. Like Madan Lal Khurana, Kalyan Singh too has a large fan following. But, in party politics, that does not help. Once you are sidelined, you exist in the fringes. If you feel insulted and move out of the party again, you fall by the wayside. That is the irony of politics.

But, it is not only Kalyan Singh’s secular credentials that are in question. Kalyan Singh must explain the mischief he played when he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time. He got the chapter on Mahatma Gandhi removed from the syllabi of the schools in Uttar Pradesh and got it replaced with a chapter on the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. What prompted him to do that? If he had just added a chapter on Hedgewar, it may have been tolerated. But, the fact that he removed the chapter on Mahatma Gandhi to make way for a chapter on Hedgewar is unpardonable.

Coming back to Babri Masjid, Kalyan Singh wants to own up moral responsibility for the demolition of Babri Masjid after seventeen years. If anyone had the moral responsibility for the demolition of Babri Masjid, it was the prime minister of the day, Narasimha Rao. He owned up the moral responsibility then and there notwithstanding the fact that he was in a predicament when he got news of its demolition.

Just to set the records straight, Kalyan Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh on December 6, 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished. He had assured the Supreme Court of India by means of an affidavit that no untoward incident would take place in Ayodhya. He was the head of a duly elected government of Uttar Pradesh. Law and order is a state subject. He said the government of Uttar Pradesh is fully capable of handling any contingency in Ayodhya and assured the court that no untoward incident would take place there.

Following intelligence reports about the preparations for demolition of Babri Masjid being made by the kar sevaks, Narasimha Rao was getting jittery. He offered Kalyan Singh central help. But, Kalyan Singh declined any help from the centre. In spite of that Narasimha Rao in consultation with the then home minister Chavan sent ten companies of paramilitary forces to Ayodhya and told Kalyan Singh that if at any point of time, he felt that the situation was getting out of control, he could make use of the central paramilitary forces. Narasimha Rao did the best that could be done under the circumstances though he drew a lot of flak after that.

The fact of the matter is, the central government cannot interfere in the law and order of a state which is governed by a duly elected government because law and order is a state subject. The two situations where it can interfere with the law and order of a state are: (1) when the state government feels that it cannot handle a situation and requests the centre for help; and, (2) by dismissing the state government and imposing president’s rule in the state.

In this case, the state government maintained through and through that the situation was under control and that it did not need any help from the central government. So, option number one was out.

Bringing down a duly elected government and imposing president’s rule to tackle the situation would have exposed the Narasimha Rao government to ridicule. If that had been done, all those who criticized the Narasimha Rao government for failing to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid would have criticized it for imposing president’s rule when a duly elected government was in place in the state and it had assured the Supreme Court that it is fully capable of handling the situation and that no untoward incident would take place there. The question would have been what is the reason for discounting the state government’s assurance? So, option number two was also out.

When the Babri Masjid was being brought down, Kalyan Singh had a minute to minute report of the developments in Ayodhya. He just chose not to react till the mosque was demolished. What happened there was not a matter of chance. It was premeditated. It was a conspiracy. By being a co-conspirator, Kalyan Singh deceived the Supreme Court of India and betrayed the nation. He is probably thinking that the memory of the people of India is short. He is sadly mistaken there.

History will not forget Kalyan Singh’s politics of deceit. The past casts a long shadow in life. Only fortunate souls manage to move out of it. Whether the people of India will forgive Kalyan Singh and accept his politics of convenience should be clear in a couple of months. Let us wait for the Lok Sabha elections.