UP govt names two medical institutions after Kalyan Singh

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to name two medical institutes of the state after former chief minister Kalyan Singh who died after a prolonged illness at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) on August 21.

“Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to name Bulandshahr’s medical college and Lucknow’s Super Speciality Cancer Institute after Kalyan Singh. After the decision, the two institutes would now be known as Kalyan Singh Rajkiya Medical College, Bulandshahr and Kalyan Singh Super Speciality Cancer Institute, Chak Ganjaria, Lucknow,” officers at the CMO confirmed.

The officers said the UP chief minister took the decision keeping in view Kalyan Singh’s focus on works of public welfare.

Only recently Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Etah, had praised Adityanath for being with his father’s mortal remains for three days, escorting them from Lucknow to Aligarh, Atrauli and Narora on the banks of the Ganga where the last rites of the late leader were performed.

“He acted like my father’s eldest son,” Rajveer said praising Yogi Adityanath.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has already announced naming of roads across the state after the late leader who was the torchbearer of the Ram Temple movement that propelled the BJP’s rise to power.

“We have decided to name roads at all those places that were associated with him (Kalyan Singh) after him. He was a hero of the temple movement and hence the road leading to the Ram Temple would be named after him. He served as UP chief minister twice and lived in Lucknow. Hence, a road in Lucknow would be named after him. Etah, Bulandshahr, Atrauli and Prayagraj were places connected with him and hence roads there too would be named after him,” Maurya said.

The UP BJP unit is holding meetings across the state in memory of Kalyan Singh.

“He was a great leader, a visionary and so he will live on in popular memory forever,” said UP BJP leader Tarun Kant Tripathi.

Since Singh’s death, the BJP has targeted Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav for not going to pay his last respects to the departed leader and alleged that it was due to vote bank considerations. The SP has hit back at the BJP for trying to indulge in politics even in the death of a leader.

In AMU, some protesters put up posters against their vice chancellor professor Tariq Mansoor on Monday night for condoling the demise of Kalyan Singh who, they alleged, was responsible for the demolition of the Babri mosque.

UP ministers have condemned the act of the protestors and sought action against them.

In September 2020, a special CBI court had acquitted Kalyan Singh and all the 31 others, including BJP veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi, who were accused of a conspiracy to demolish the mosque. The judge concluded that there was no evidence to show that the demolition was pre-planned.