With the Ram Mandir being built in Ayodhya, it’s time to take a look at the story of the man who dedicated his entire life for the cause, and sacrificed his all for it. A metallurgical engineering graduate from BHU who joined the RSS, and later the VHP, who fought for the Hindu cause all his life.
Ashok Singhal was born on September 27, 1926 in Agra, his father Mahavir Singhal worked for the ICS, the 3rd of 6 siblings. His elder brothers Vinod Singhal retired as Chief Secretary of Tripura, Anand Singhal was a senior officer in the Defense Ministry, while his younger brother BP Singhal was a former DGP in UP, Piyush Singhal a Mumbai based businessman, and the last Vivek Singhal, based in Delhi. His sister Usha Singhal was a full time pracharak of RSS leading the women’s front.
He graduated from BHU in 1950 with a degree in mettalurgical engineering, and during his studies itself he was actively involved with RSS joining under the guidance of Balasaheb Deoras. And after graduation he became a full time pracharak working primarily around Gorakhpur. In Varanasi he came into contact with Rajendra Singh,a physics professor from Allahabad University, better known as Raju Bhaiyya.
It was under Raju Bhaiyya, that Singhal was initiated into RSS, and they both were arrested during the Emergency. When Raju Bhaiyya became head of RSS in 1980, Singhal worked as the pant pracharak for Delhi and Haryana. In 1980 he was deputed to the VHP as Joint General Secretary, and 4 years later became it’s general secretary, and later the working president, a post he continued to hold till 2011.
It was under Ashok Singhal, that VHP underwent a complete transformation, till then it was headed by likes of K.M.Munshi, the Mysore Maharaja Jaya Chamaraj Wodeyar, C.P.Ramaswami Aiyer, was seen more as an elite organization, concentrating mostly on social, cultural activities. It was Singhal who took VHP to the masses, as he fought for causes like ban on Cow Slaughter and conversions vigorously on the ground, leading protests.
In 1981, around 1200 Dalits in a village in Tamil Nadu called Meenakshipuram, converted to Islam, claiming discrimination, an incident that shook the Hindu society then. Ashok Singhal began to fight the conversion vigorously on ground, first in tandem with Hindu Munnani, he tried to do a Ghar Wapsi, but it did not succeed, with only 7 people willing. He found out that most of the Dalits had converted due to lack of access to temples in the area and got around 200 temples built in the area, where every one would have access irrespective of caste.
During the entire episode, he coordinated with a whole lot of Sadhus, Sants an association that would stand him in good stead later on. He organized the first Dharma Sansad in 1984 at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, that saw Sadhus and Sants from all over the country participating. It was at this Sansad, that the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was born, with a vow to build the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.
However with the assasination of Indira Gandhi in October 1984, and Rajiv Gandhi riding the sympathy wave to come to power in the General Elections, the activities had to take a back seat. The newly formed BJP party had to be content with just 2 seats, with most of it’s prominent leaders like Vajpayee, Advani losing.
BJP now needed the support of VHP, as well as the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, for it’s political ascendancy, thus increasing the importance of Ashok Singhal. The Congress too now entered the fray for it’s political benefit, seeking Hindu votes, and performed the Shilanyas at Babri Masjid in 1989 opening the locks.
The BJP reaped the benefits of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement winning 58 seats in the 1989 General Elections, a big leap from the 2 it had. In 1990 L.K.Advani took out the Rath Yatra, in support of the Ram Janmabhoomi, however he was arrested in Bihar on the orders of then CM Laloo Prasad Yadav. As BJP withdrew it’s support in protest, V.P.Singh had to resign and we had Chandrashekhar becoming PM with support of the Congress, that however fell just 40 days later.
Around this time Singhal lead the Kar Seva at Ayodhya, in front, in spite of the restrictions imposed by Mulayam Singh Yadav. The police cracked down on the protestors and thousands were killed, the bodies thrown in Saryu river, Ashok Singhal himself suffered a lathi blow, that left his head bleeding.
The 1991 General elections saw P.V.Narasimha Rao assume charge as PM, and BJP winning a huge majority in UP with Kalyan Singh being sworn in as CM, who openly called for construction of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Singhal however ensured that the VHP would still have the charge of the Ram Mandir movement, coordinating with the likes of Acharya Giriraj Kishore, Ramchandra Das Paramahans, Mahant Avaidyanath and at the Dharm Sansad in Delhi in October 1992, he openly announced that Kar Seva will be held in Ayodhya.
On 6th December as the kar sevaks began to gather at Ayodhya, Kalyan Singh assured SC that no disturbance would take place, and law and order will be maintained. All the main leaders of BJP like Advani, Uma Bharati, Murali Manohar Joshi were present, except Vajpayee. As the crowd of around 2 lakh people mounted the domes of Babri, the demolition began and it soon collapsed.
Singhal was so dedicated to the cause of Ram Janmabhoomi, that even when BJP was in power, he did not hesitate to criticize Vajpayee, for neglecting the very cause that bought them to power. He even sat on a hunger strike against it, which ended when he was force fed. Later Ashok Singhal, would become one of Modi’s staunchest supporters, backing him even when Modi acted on some of the VHP leaders in Gujarat.
In his later years however he had to step down due to ill health, and in 2015 passed away in Gurgaon at the age of 89. Till his death, Ashok Singhal held the cause of Ram Janmabhoomi closest to his heart never once compromising on him. The Ram Mandir being built today is a fitting tribute to him.