Ajit Singh: A political leader who effortlessly changed hats

Ajit Singh cut his teeth on non-Congress politics, though he did steer his party into an alliance with the second Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) govt till 2014

A political leader who effortlessly changed hats he wore for Bharat and India, died today. Ajit Singh, 82, variously known as leader of farmers, Jats and representative of the area loosely known as western Uttar Pradesh, several-term union minister and a trained engineer from IIT who worked at IBM for a brief period, had been politically inactive in recent years. But he inherited a strong political legacy left behind by his father, former prime  minister Charan Singh, that he has bequeathed to his son, Jayant Choudhary, former MP from Mathura.

Ajit Singh cut his teeth on non-Congress politics, though he did steer his party into an alliance with the second Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government till 2014. His primary constituency was farmers of western UP, both Hindu and Muslim. This region, that sends one of the largest contingents of MPs from UP to the Lok Sabha, made him an essential part of many of the coalition governments in the 1990s and 2000s. Through his political career, his endeavour remained to ensure the rights and claims of the farmer constituency was protected: and this led to his guidance, remotely, of the farmers’ movement, against three union laws. His son Jayant was one of the few politicians to be invited to the podium to address the agitating farmers – who maintain that the decision to vote against ‘Choudhary Ajit Singh’s party’ in 2019 was a mistake.

In his lifetime, Ajit Singh had to see the distressing spectacle of his support base splintering after the communal riots in Muzzaffarnagar in 2013. His party could not get a single seat in the 2014 general elections. But before that, it survived the split of the Charan Singh legacy between Mulayam Singh Yadav, HN Bahuguna and others. He formed the Lok Dal (A) and the Janata Party in 1987 and 1988,  and became general secretary of the Janata Dal in 1989 with VP Singh. When VP Singh came to power, Ajit Singh became industry minister. He joined the PV Narasimha Rao government as food minister but resigned in 1996.  In 1998, he founded the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and was agriculture Minister in the Vajpayee government from 2001-2003 and the Congress-led second United Progressive Alliance government till 2014. He represented Baghpat, a constituency represented by his father as well, from 1989 to 2009.

Arguably, his most controversial tenure was as civil aviation minister from 2011 to 2014. It was during his tenure that Air India decided to induct the Dreamliner aircraft though its performance was declining. Left to himself, Singh may have initiated a correction then itself, but he was part of a government that had Mamata Banerjee as a partner and was stoutly resisting higher FDI levels in the sector. Although the two big airline deals--Jet-Etihad and Tata-Singapore Airlines agreement--took place under his tenure as minister, Singh struggled valiantly to modernise Air India. And if his efforts were largely unsuccessful, it was not for want of trying but for want of succeeding.

He represented a bridge between a constituency that represented a more traditional era in politics, including the continued dominance of the khap (clan) system and a modern forward-looking India. In interactions with Business Standard, he gave vent sometimes to his sense of frustration and despair at the path, beset as it was with hurdles. Still, the man who enjoyed jazz and musicals like ‘Hello Dolly’, would never say no to a glass of white wine and loved Italian food, especially ravioli, will be missed: mainly because he had no enemies, only friends.