Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh on Saturday said the country and society needs Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to return to power, reports said. A video of Singh surfaced over the weekend and drew criticism against him for making the statement while serving in a constitutional post.
Singh was addressing Bharatiya Janata Party workers in his hometown Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and responding to protests against the BJP’s decision to give a ticket to lawmaker Satish Gautam. Protesters claimed that Gautam had not done enough work for his constituency to deserve the ticket again.
The 87-year-old told BJP workers to accept the party’s decision on Gautam. “We all want Modi as prime minister,” Singh is heard saying. “It is important for the society that Modi becomes prime minister.”
Singh had said he was speaking in his capacity of a BJP worker. He was Uttar Pradesh chief minister during the Ayodhya riots when Hindutva activists demolished the 16th century Babri mosque in 1992. His son and grandson are legislators in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the President’s office told NDTV that it had not received a complaint about the matter yet. “No one in a constitutional post is permitted to campaign for anyone. But in this case, the President’s Office has received no complaint,” the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
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