Karan Singh | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Singh in 2013 | |
| 1stGovernor of Jammu and Kashmir | |
| In office 30 March 1965 – 15 May 1967 | |
| Preceded by | Position established Himself asSadr-i-Riyasat |
| Succeeded by | Bhagwan Sahay |
| Sadr-i-Riyasat ofJammu and Kashmir | |
| In office 17 November 1952 – 30 March 1965 | |
| Prime Minister | Sheikh Abdullah Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad Khwaja Shamsuddin Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished Himself asGovernor |
| Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir | |
| In office 20 June 1949 – 17 November 1952 | |
| Monarch | Sir Hari Singh |
| Ambassador of India to the United States of America | |
| In office 1989–1990 | |
| Preceded by | P. K. Kaul |
| Succeeded by | Abid Hussain |
| Union Minister of Education and Culture | |
| In office 30 July 1979 – 14 January 1980 | |
| Prime Minister | Charan Singh |
| Preceded by | Pratap Chandra Chunder |
| Succeeded by | B. Shankaranand |
| Union Minister for Health and Family Planning | |
| In office 9 November 1973 – 24 March 1977 | |
| Prime Minister | Indira Gandhi |
| Preceded by | Uma Shankar Dikshit |
| Succeeded by | Raj Narain |
| Union Minister of Tourism andCivil Aviation | |
| In office 13 March 1967 – 9 November 1973 | |
| Prime Minister | Indira Gandhi |
| Preceded by | Ministry established |
| Succeeded by | R. Bahadur |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 28 January 2000 – 27 January 2018 | |
| Succeeded by | Sanjay Singh |
| Constituency | National Capital Territory of Delhi |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office 1971–1984 | |
| Preceded by | G. S. Brigadier |
| Succeeded by | Girdhari Lal Dogra |
| Constituency | Udhampur |
| In office 1967–1968 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | G. S. Brigadier |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1931-03-09)9 March 1931 (age 94) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress (1947–1979; 2000–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (1996–1999) Independent (1984) Indian National Congress (U) (1979–1984) |
| Spouse | Yasho Rajya Lakshmi |
| Relations | Dogra dynasty Chitrangada Singh (daughter-in-law) Bhim Singh (kinsman) Dhian Singh (ancestral Kinsman) |
| Children | Vikramaditya Singh,Ajatshatru Singh, Jyotsna Singh |
| Parent(s) | MaharajaSir Hari Singh Maharani Tara Devi |
| Residence(s) | Mansarovar 3, Nyaya Marg,Chanakyapuri,New Delhi |
| Alma mater | University of Kashmir (B.A.) University of Delhi (M.A.,PhD) |
| Awards |  Padma Vibhushan |
| Signature |  |
| Website | karansingh.com |
Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher.[1] He is thetitular Maharaja of theprincely state ofJammu and Kashmir. From 1952 to 1965 he was theSadr-i-Riyasat (President) of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.[2] He is the chairperson trustee of theDharmarth Trust of Jammu and Kashmir which maintains 175 temples in north India and works in other areas such as historical preservation.[3][4]
Singh was a member of India's Upper House of Parliament, theRajya Sabha, representing the national capital territory ofDelhi. He is a senior member of theIndian National Congress party who served successively as President (Sadr-i-Riyasat)[2][5] andGovernor of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. He was a life trustee and president ofIndia International Centre. He was elected chancellor ofBanaras Hindu University for three terms[6] until 2018 when he was succeeded byGiridhar Malaviya.[7] He has been a prospective presidential candidate over the years.[8][9][10][11]
Yuvraj Karan Singh was born at theMartinez Hotel,[12]Cannes,France, into theDogra dynasty. He was the only son ofSir Hari Singh,Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.[13] His mother,Maharani Tara Devi, who was the fourth wife of his father, was the daughter of a landowningKatochRajput family and came from (Vijaypur nearBilaspur) inKangra district ofHimachal Pradesh.[dubious –discuss][citation needed]
Singh was educated atDoon School,Dehradun, a boarding school, which represented a departure from the usual practise of princes being educated by tutors at home. The school was very elite, but it nevertheless meant that Karan Singh shared the classroom (though not the hostel) with boys from non-royal backgrounds, and received a standard education. Unusually for the scion of an Indian royal family, he then enrolled in a college for a graduate degree, receiving first aB.A. degree fromJammu and Kashmir University,Srinagar, and subsequently anM.A. degree in Political Science and aPhD fromUniversity of Delhi.[14]
In 1950, the 19-year-old Karan Singh was married to 13-year-old Yasho Rajya Lakshmi, granddaughter ofMohan Shumsher Rana, Maharajah of Nepal, belonging to theRana dynasty ofNepal. Her father, General Maharajkumar Sharada Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, was a son of Mohan Shumsher.[15] The match, arranged by their families in the usual Indian way, lasted all their lives. The couple had three children:
In the early 1960s, hetook initiation from SriMadhava Ashish, a disciple of SriKrishna Prem of theMirtola ashram.[18]
In 1949, at age of eighteen, Singh was appointed as the Prince Regent ofJammu and Kashmir state after his father stepped down as the ruler, following the state's accession to India.[19] From that point, he served successively as regent, theSadr-i-Riyasat, and the first governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1965 to 1967.
On 8 August 1953 as the President (Sadr-i-Riyasat) of Jammu and Kashmir, Karan Singh backed acoup d'etat against the elected Prime MinisterSheikh Abdullah,[citation needed] allegedly for harboring independent ambitions for Kashmir, which led to the imprisonment of Abdullah for eleven years following theKashmir Conspiracy Case.
In 1967, he resigned asGovernor of Jammu and Kashmir, and became the youngest-ever member of the Union Cabinet, holding the portfolios of Tourism and Civil Aviation between 1967 and 1973.[20][21] Two years later, he voluntarily surrendered his privy purse, which he had been entitled to since the death of his father in 1961. He placed the entire sum into a charitable trust named after his parents.
In the 26th amendment[22] to theConstitution of India promulgated in 1971, the Government of India, of which Karan Singh was aUnion cabinet minister, abolished all official symbols ofprincely India, including titles, privileges, and remuneration (privy purses).[23] During the conclusion of theCold War, he was India's ambassador to theUSA. Singh received thePadma Vibhushan in 2005.
In 1971, he was sent as an envoy to the Eastern Bloc nations to explain India's position with regard to East Pakistan, then engaged in civil war with West Pakistan.[24] He attempted to resign following an aircraft crash in 1973, but the resignation was not accepted. The same year, he became the Minister for Health and Family planning, serving in this post until 1977.
Following the Emergency, Karan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from Udhampur in 1977 on a Congress ticket [the party had not split into Congress(I) and Congress(U) factions till then], and became Minister of Education and Culture in 1979 in Charan Singh's cabinet, representing Congress(U), which had split from Indira's Congress. Notably, Charan Singh became Prime Minister after the fall of Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai. And Charan Singh himself resigned without facing Parliament even for a day as he was not sure of having a confidence motion passed in his favour. Karan Singh contested the 1980 Lok Sabha election on a Congress(U) ticket and won. In 1989–1990, he served as Indian Ambassador to the US, and this experience became the subject of a book he wrote, "Brief Sojourn".[25]
From 1967 to 1984, Karan Singh was a member of the Lok Sabha. In 1984, he contested the Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate from Jammu but lost the election. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 30 November 1996 to 12 August 1999, representingNational Conference, a Muslim dominated party active inJammu and Kashmir. Later, he was aRajya Sabha member from 28 January 2000 to 27 January 2018 representingINC. He is known for switching his loyalties from one political party to another quite frequently. He has served as Chancellor ofBanaras Hindu University, Jammu and Kashmir University,Jawaharlal Nehru University, and NIIT University.[26]
He has been engaged bySansad TV (a merged Global TV Channel ofLok Sabha TV andRajya Sabha TV) as a Guest Anchor along with some other senior celebrated experts from diverse fields such asBibek Debroy,Amitabh Kant,Shashi Tharoor,Hemant Batra,Maroof Raza andSanjeev Sanyal to present some flagship programmes.[27][28][29]
| Position | Party | Constituency | From | To | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (1st Term) | JKNC | Jammu & Kashmir | 30 November 1996 | 12 August 1999 | 2 years, 255 days | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2nd Term) | INC | N.C.T. Delhi | 28 January 2000 | 27 January 2006 | 17 years, 364 days | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (3rd Term) | 28 January 2006 | 27 January 2012 | ||||
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (4th Term) | 28 January 2012 | 27 January 2018 | ||||
Karan Singh served as the chancellor ofBanaras Hindu University for three terms up until 2018. In 2008, he awarded an honorary doctorate to the then prime ministerManmohan Singh,[30] and in 2016, he was asked by university administration to award an honorary doctorate to prime ministerNarendra Modi, that the prime minister declined.[31]
%2c_in_Varanasi_on_February_22%2c_2016.jpg)
Padma Vibhushan (2005)."In 1974, I led the Indian delegation to the World Population Conference in Bucharest, where my statement that 'development is the best contraceptive' became widely known and oft quoted. I must admit that 20 years later I am inclined to reverse this, and my position now is that 'contraception is the best development'.”[32]
Before leaving Srinagar he also had long talks with Yuvraj Karan Singh, who was then being pressed to become the Sadr-i-Riyasat - Head of State of the State.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Post created following abdication ofHari Singh | Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir 1949–1952 | Succeeded by Head of State of Jammu and Kashmir (Sadr-i-Riyasat) |
| Preceded by Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir | Head of State of Jammu and Kashmir (Sadr-i-Riyasat) 1952–1964 | Succeeded by Succeeded by that ofGovernor of Jammu and Kashmir |
| Preceded by Head of State of Jammu and Kashmir (Sadr-i-Riyasat) | Governor of Jammu and Kashmir 1964–1967 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Ministry established | Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation 13 March 1967 – 9 November 1973 | Succeeded by R. Bahadur |
| Preceded by | Minister of Health and Family Planning 9 November 1973 – 24 March 1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Education and Culture 1979–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Indian Ambassador to the United States 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
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