Ashok Singhal

Ashok Singhal (27 September 1926 – 17 November 2015) was an Indian activist and the international working president of the Hindu organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) for over 20 years and in charge of the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He was replaced in the Vishva Hindu Parishad in December 2011 following a long bout of diminishing physical health. Succeeded by Praveen Togadia, Singhal suffered ill-health but was working till a month before his death.

Life Singhal was born in Agra. His father Mr Mahavir Singh Singhal(Vill Bijoli, atrauli, District Aligarh) was an ICS (Indian Civil Service) government official. He had six brothers and a sister. His elder brothers were Vinod P Singhal Retd as Chief Secretary State of Tripura, Pramod P Singhal a businessman based in Udaipur, Anand P Singhal a senior officer in the Defence Ministry and his younger brothers were, BP Singhal, former DGP, UP Police and BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Piyush Singhal a businessman based in Mumbai and Vivek Singhal a businessman based in Delhi. His sister, Usha Rani Singhal was also a sangh pracharak and led the women front. Singhal received a bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi in 1950.

Singhal was a trained vocalist in Hindustani music. He studied under Pandit Omkarnath Thakur.

Career

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

Ashok Singhal joined Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1942 under tutelage of Balasaheb Deoras. After obtaining a degree in Engineering, he opted to become a full-time pracharak. He worked in various locations around Uttar Pradesh, becoming a prant pracharak for Delhi and Haryana. In 1980, he was deputed to the VHP, becoming its joint general secretary. In 1984, he became its general secretary and, later, the working president, a role in which he continued till 2011.

Vishva Hindu Parishad

After the Meenakshipuram conversions in 1981, Singhal moved to the VHP as the joint general secretary. After noting the main grievance of the Dalit communities in the area as being access to temples, VHP built 200 temples specifically for Dalits. He says that the conversions stopped afterwards.

Ashok Singhal then went on fast unto death on the demand of the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. He was "Force Fed" on the orders of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This saddened Ashok Singhal and badly affected once good relations of Singhal and Vajpayee for the rest of his life.

Philosophy

Ashok Singhal openly promoted his Hindu views. In every public meeting after 1989, wherever he gave speech, there was definitely talks of Hindu and of Hindu's interest.