25 Years After Babri Demolition, Kalyan Singh Preaches Tolerance

Kalyan Singh was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri Masjid was demolished.

(Left to Right) Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, LK Advani and Uma Bharti wave at the crowd at a public meeting after appearing in a special court in connection with the demolition of Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid, in Rae Bareilly, on 28 July, 2005. 

(Photo: PTI)

Twenty-five years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh under whose tenure the demolition took place, said, “There shouldn’t be intolerance,” The Indian Express reported.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said he came to the conclusion after reading the scriptures of a number of religions, including the Quran, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Satyarth Prakash, the Rig Veda, and the Guru Granth Sahib.

Kalyan Singh’s Role in the Babri Masjid Demolition

Singh is often remembered as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh under whose watch the Babri Masjid was destroyed by kar sevaks. The responsibility for enabling the demolition of the Babri Masjid was put largely on Kalyan Singh’s head, in the list of 68 leaders, by the Liberhan Commission, in its 1,000-page report, The Hindu reported.

Singh, his ministers, and his hand-picked bureaucrats created man-made and cataclysmic circumstances which could result in no consequences other than the demolition of the disputed structure… They denuded the state of every legal, moral and statutory restraint and wilfully enabled and facilitated the wanton destruction and the ensuing anarchy.

Excerpt from the Liberhan Commission report

“Tolerate All Opinions,” Says Kalyan Singh

Coming in the light of the Padmaavat protests in Rajasthan, Singh, who was appointed Rajasthan Governor in 2014, preached tolerance, adding that even if one’s opinion doesn’t concur with another’s, all opinions must be tolerated.

Tolerance, along with economic democracy and social justice, are the life blood of democracy. Even though we may not agree with someone’s thoughts, we should have the capacity to tolerate them. We may counter their ideas with our own ideas, but there shouldn’t be intolerance.

Kalyan Singh, Rajasthan Governor, to <i>IE</i>

Singh’s office also told Indian Express that once he was finished reading the scriptures, a collated version of his conclusions will be made available “for the benefit of society, state, and nation.”

(With inputs from The Indian Express and The Hindu)