Visionary statesman

Distinguished scholar and an accomplished diplomat, Padma Vibhushan, Dr Karan Singh, continues to serve the nation. Col J. P. Singh (retd) on the multi-faceted personality, who turns 80

Yuvraj Karan Singh was born to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi on March 9, 1931, at Cannes in France. After Maharaja Hari Singh succeeded his uncle Maharaja Partap Singh as the ruler of`A0Jammu and Kashmir in 1925, it was understood that Yuvraj would succeeded his father in due course. But it was not to be.

Predicting that Independence was in the offing, his father groomed Karan for a democratic role in the country. Karan Singh eventually became head of the state and a minister in the Union Cabinet spanning over 36 years and a Member of the Parliament thereafter.

A multi-faceted personality, Dr Karan Singh is an intellectual, philosopher, poet, writer, lyric, singer, musician and statesman. To groom him to be an able administrator, the Maharaja placed him in an isolated formal atmosphere at the age of 5 and put him through rigorous education and military training. He was allowed to see his mother only for one hour every day.

In 1940, he was sent to Cathedral High School, Bombay, and a year later, he took admission in Presentation Convent, Srinagar. After preliminary schooling, Dr Karan Singh was sent to Doon School in 1942 from where he passed his Senior Cambridge in 1945. Here he had to make his own bed and polish his shoes. He would get Rs 5 as monthly pocket allowance. The stay in Doon School helped Dr Karan Singh to make the crucial transition from feudal to a democratic way of life.

After graduating from Shri Partap Singh College, Srinagar, he did his Masters degree in Political Science from Delhi University in 1957. He did Ph. D from Delhi University in 1961. His thesis of doctorate was "Aurobindo — The Prophet of Nationalism."

In 1950, he married Yasho Rajya Lakshmi, daughter of Gen Sarada Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana and grand daughter of Maharaja Mohan Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana, the Prime Minister of Nepal. At the time of wedding, he was 19 and she 13.

At 18, Karan Singh was catapulted into the political scene after Maharaja Hari Singh appointed him Regent on June 20, 1949. Later, he was elected Sadar-e-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir by the Constituent Assembly in 1950. He was re-elected again Sadar-e-Riyasat in 1956 and 1961 and appointed Governor in 1964. Dr Karan Singh has the distinction of being the only Sadar-e-Riyasat that any state had. He abolished monarchy by passing an ordinance on September 15, 1952. He decided not to formally use the title of Maharaja with his name so long as he remained Sadar-e-Riyasat.

The state plunged into political turmoil soon after Independence after being invaded by Pakistani tribals and later during the transition from monarchy to democracy. The responsibility of handling the crisis fell upon Yuvraj as Regent and Sadar-e-Riyasat. On August 8, 1953, he dismissed the government of Sheikh Abdullah and appointed Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad as the Prime Minister of the state. In 1964, Dr Karan Singh was appointed the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

When Indira Gandhi inducted him into the Union Cabinet in March 1967 as Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, at 36, he became the youngest person ever to become a Cabinet Minister. In 1973, owning moral responsibility for an Avro crash, he resigned but Gandhi did not accept his resignation. From 1973 to 1977, he was Minister of Health and Family Planning and then from 1979 to 1980, he served as Minister of Education and Culture. In the first-ever World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974, Dr Karan Singh coined the slogan of "Development is the best Contraceptive", which was widely appreciated.

As a Minister of Health and Family Planning, he presented National Population Policy in the Parliament in November 1976 and made statutory warning compulsory on cigarette packs that ‘Smoking is Injurious to Health’.

As a former ruler of a princely state, he voluntarily surrendered his privy purse, which paved the way for Indira Gandhi to amend the Constitution to abolish this legacy. Whatever he had received as privy purse, he put the entire sum into Hari-Tara Charitable Trust, named after his parents.

`A0He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Udhampur constituency four times from 1967 to 1984. After withdrawal of the Emergency, Dr Karan Singh earned the distinction of being the only sitting minister to have won an election in North India.

In 1998, he founded India Forum and People’s Commission on Environment and Development, which holds public hearings throughout the country. He continues to be an active member of the Author’s Guild of India, the Indian Board of Wildlife and many others. As Sadar-e-Riyasat and Governor, he was Chancellor of University of Jammu and Kashmir. In 2002, he was appointed Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and is presently Chancellor of Benaras Hindu University as well as President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Prominent among the many honours and awards bestowed upon him are King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935, King George VI Coronation Medal in 1937 and Padma Vibhushan in 2005. He holds the rank of Major-General in the Indian Army and is Honorary Colonel of the Regiment of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles.