Sadhna Singh ,a queen of controversies?

Sadhna Singh ,a queen of controversies?

There was nothing so sensational in the analytical piece in the Hindustan Times on chief minister Shivraj Singh’s wife except the headline. “ Queen of Controversies” was how the otherwise balanced analysis was titled.

The headline predictably rattled the Shivraj government. Never before the wife of the present chief minister- -or, for that matter , any MP chief minister in the past—was profiled with such a damning  headline in a newspaper. The analysis was , though, merely based on the Congress’s allegations about  Sadhna Singh  having wielded extra-constitutional powers in the CM secretariat in cahoot with a bunch of obsequious bureaucrats.

From former leader of opposition Ajay Singh to present MPCC spokesman KK Mishra, a score of Congress leaders have  raised the stink over the alleged involvement  of ‘the CM’s family” in corruption ranging from acquiring currency-counting machine to facilitating mining leases to chosen few , not to mention recommendations to the PEB mandarins for clearing undeserved candidates in exams and for government jobs.  

But the piece, nonetheless, badly upset the  Shivraj Singh’s media managers. Coming , as it did, in the midst of heavy onslaught against the chief minister for his role in the PEB scam, the report hit the beleaguered Chouhan where it  hurts most.

Accustomed to be molly-coddled by the media for all his omissions and commissions so far, the blow was all the more hurtful for Shivraj. What’s more, he couldn’t have imagined the paper’s this “audacity” even after he has sued Ajay Singh and KK Mishra  in a Bhopal court for “ unnecessarily dragging his wife’s name” in the scams.

 Embroiled in the multi-layered PEB scam, the chief minister is feeling the most intense heat from the opposition ever since he occupied the office eight years ago. It hasn’t helped that   he is perceived an LK Advani’s man and, therefore, an adversary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All through  his smooth eight years of  ruling, the chief minister pilloried the ‘Congress ‘s obsession with Shivraj’. Now, to his dismay, the Congress is smirking  at the CM’s  predicament—the  queen of controversies at home, the super boss in New Delhi.  

Has time come for his nemesis to catch up with him?  Did he make a mistake in giving his wife too long a rope?  Who knows what’s troubling Shivraj’s mind  these days?

Sadhna Singh, the bespectacled and coy-looking wife of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, is undoubtedly the most visible in public of the spouses of all the successive Madhya Pradesh chief ministers since inception of the state in 1956.

In initial days of Chouhan’s chief ministership, people, or at least BJP workers, approved,  if not  enamored, of   the couple’s frequent outings at taxpayers’ money. If Barrack Obama is never shy of showing his spousal affection for adorable Michel  to the US citizens , why shouldn’t Shivraj  do the same ? The argument had its merit. For, neither was tainted by  charges of corruption. While Shivraj Singh was struggling to come to grip with the nitty- gritty of the administration, Sadhna Singh came across as a demure Bhartiya Naree following her husband as a shadow.

Since Sadhna Singh had carried out the customary wifely task of helping the politician husband  in electioneerings in Vidisha Lok Sabha seat—Shivraj was elected five times from here—the couple’s  exposure together in larger public domain after Chouhan’s  coronation as CM was deemed logical. At worst Shivraj could be accused of being an uxorious.

 His fondness for the wife was never a secret to his  friends  and close acolytes  ever since he married the girl from Gondia ( Maharashtra) in 1992. Before that he had won two elections-one for the assembly and other for the Lok Sabha. Moreover, he was passionately engaged in mass marriages of poor girls in his constituency, a passion that earned him nationwide praise when as the CM he transformed it into a popular Ladli laxmi scheme of the state government.

The mass marriage ceremonies would invariably witness the CM and  his wife together offering kanya dan of the poor girls. 

So, Sadhna Singh was no stranger to the electorate of her husband’s constituency. Soon after their marriage, she had started sharing public platforms with Shivraj. None suspected any ambition--political or otherwise—in her then. Even after Shivraj became chief minister, not many suspected that happy tide in the hubby’s fortune may have kindled proprietorial  ambition in the wife  to partake of heady  power.  

However, there were sceptics too even then who thought otherwise..Their scepticism stemmed from the fact that a sizeable section of the BJP was pitching for Sadhna Singh as her husband’s successor for Vidisha Lok Sabha seat, with or without tacit approval of the chief minister. The lobbying for Sadhna was occasioned by Shivraj vacating the Lok Sabha seat to enter the state assembly from Budni seat following his anointment as CM.

The CM did not categorically deny that his wife was interested in the contest till the party asked him to do so.  The Vidisha seat was given to Shivraj’s friend Rampal Singh who won. 

 In the 2009 Lok Sabha election too, speculation was rife that Sadhna Singh might be BJP candidate from Hoshangabad seat. The ’inner-party  surveys’  by  the  BJP workers overwhelmingly  favoured the CM’s wife  over any other candidate.  Neither the CM not Sadhna denied prospects of her candidacy. Again, the high command stepped in to deny Sadhna Singh ticket. Once again, in 2014, Sadhna Singh’s name came up for Vidisha by election, caused by Shivraj quitting the seat following his victory from traditional Budni seat.

It is in the realm of conjecture whether the couple was indeed keen on Sadhna Singh joining electoral politics. But the fact that she is vice president of the state unit of BJP woman wing clearly indicates she is not averse to active politics.

Herein lies a major difference between Sadhna Singh and wives of the past chief ministers of MP. Of course, many ex-CMs’ wives’ were politically-minded: they would  have say in the hubby’s  political decisions: some of them  would even send bureaucrats for personal errands, but would not be active in politics.

Old timers in media and government aver they never got to know wives of the ex-chief ministers, be he  Ravi Shankar Shukla, Kailash Nath Katju, Bhagwant Rao Mandloi, DP Mishra, PC Sethi, GN Singh, VK Sakhlecha, Kailash Joshi, Sundar Lal Patwa, Moti Lal Vora,Digvijay Singh.

 Late Shyama Chanrn Shukla’s   wife Padmini was, of course, quite articulate even in administrative and political matters. Allegations were also leveled against her of interfering in transfer-postings of bureaucrats. Her fondness for Maika  in Indore was well known. Quite a few opportunists had managed to leverage her Maika connections to get their  works done, it used to be alleged.

But redoubtable SC Shukla would not allow the wife freedom in the governance beyond a point. Shukla was said to have sent packing one Tiwari from the CM house when he learnt this man was playing as a conduit between Padmini Shukla and favour –seekers.

Arjun Singh’s wife Saroj Singh was known to be domineering but she too would exercise caution in meddling in the husband’s political-administrative affairs. She helped Arjun Singh a lot in burnishing  his political career through calls to  journalists, seeking favourable news items in papers about him. She also shared Arjun Singh’s penchant for  nepotism in equal measure but would refrain from ordering about the CM office for the purpose. She trusted her husband too well to leave her wish list with his bureaucrats.

Digvijay Singh’s wife Asha Singh was a dignity personified. All though Digvijay’s 10-year rule , she maintained a dignified distance from her husband’s functioning.

Uma Bharti, a spinster , was without the luxury of a husband but this reality did not prevent her critics from raising accusing finger at  her one-time mentor Govindacharya who would spend considerable time in the tumultuous eight months the  stormy petrel was in the CM house.

Babul al Gaur, a widower, made a glaring mistake of  appointing  his daughter-in-law Krishna Gaur as chairperson of the MP tourism corporation but  under pressure from the party reverted the decision a few days  later.

So, Sadhna Singh stands out as the queen who  has been embroiled in controversies.