The Defence Minister of India turned 68 yesterday and completed nearly four decades of his career in politics. Singh has certainly been a keen member of the Prime Minister Modi’s cabinet. He took the office of the Union Defence Ministry in 2019 succeeding the current Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman.
Here are some facts about the Indian defense minister:
Rajnath Singh was born on July 10, 1951 in Bhabhaura village of Chandauli district in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was born into a family of farmers.
He secured a first division in the Master’s degree in Physics which he pursued from Gorakhpur University. He later started teaching Physics at KB Post Graduate College in Mirzapur.
In 1974, Singh joined the Bhartiya Jan Sangh and was appointed as secretary of the Mirzapur unit. At 24, he became the district president of Jan Sangh, later becoming a Member of Legislative Assembly from Mirzapur.
After various runs with the BJP government over the years, Singh became the Education minister in the state of Uttar Pradesh. During his tenure, he introduced the Anti-Copying Act, 1992 making copying in examination, a non-bailable offense. He also included Vedic maths into the syllabus.
After three years, he was elected into the Rajya Sabha and later on became the Union Surface Transport Minister in the year 1999.
In the year 2000, he was elected as the Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh. As one of the first moves, he focused on altering the reservation system so that the most backward classes attain the maximum benefit out of it.
After leaving office in 2002, Singh became the Union Agriculture Minister in the year 2003. He was responsible for schemes like Kisan Call Centre and Farm Income Insurance Scheme.In the year 2005, he went on to become the National Party President of the BJP.
With the Modi government’s cabinet being elected for its first term, Rajnath Singh was given the office of the Union Home Ministry. He handled the office till the year 2019 and went on to becoming the Union Defence Minister in the second tenure of the Modi Government.
Singh became the Defence Minister of India on May 31, 2019 and handles the office of the Ministry of Defence since then.