Team News Riveting
Lucknow, August 21
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and the main “architect” of under construction Ram Temple in Ayodhya breathed his last on Saturday of multi organ failure.
Singh, 89, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in the city due to an infection and reduced consciousness level on July 4. He died due to sepsis and multi organ failure, the SGPGIMS said in a statement on Saturday night.
The Uttar Pradesh government has announced three days of state mourning.
As Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh played a crucial role during the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement. At no point in time has he expressed any regret over what happened on December 6 when he did not allow the security forces to open fire at the Kar Sevaks and sacrificed his position as the Chief Minister for it. He will remain one of the icons of the Hindutva Movement.
Singh, in a recent interview, said that he wished to see Ram Mandir come up in Ayodhya before his death and take rebirth in the temple town once again. “He was proud of his decision to not allow the police to open fire on karsevaks in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992,” Singh said, adding that it was the demolition of the disputed structure that paved the way for the Ram Temple bhoomi pujan scheduled on August 5, 2020.
A senior BJP leader recalled that after the Babri Masjid demolition, such was his popularity that it took him 13 hours to cover a distance of 130 kilometres from Lucknow to Ayodhya on his maiden arrival to the temple town.