Sanjay Singh (Indian politician)

Sanjay Singh was born in Sultanpur District, Uttar Pradesh. Born to parents, who were teachers, Singh has a diploma in Mining Engineering from Orissa School of Mining Engineering in Keonjhar. He was at the forefront to speak for the right of miners along with being associated to the rights of street hawkers. He has worked towards the welfare of the people of Sultanpur and raised their issues on different platforms from the beginning.

He formed the Azad Samaj Seva Samiti in Lucknow in 1994. He started working for and among the poor — organizing blood donation camps, health camps and campaigning for people's rights and worked towards providing employment opportunities to the poor. Singh has time and again been associated with movements related to hawkers and managed to raise their issues at different platforms.[5][6] He is a part of the National Hawkers' Federation as well.

Prior to joining politics, Sanjay Singh led and was associated with many social movements and causes for people's welfare. He has been a fellow companion of renowned socialist leader Shri Raghu Thakur of Democratic Socialist Party, and participated in various welfare and socialist conferences and movements along with him. Singh was involved in a 16-year struggle for the rights of the street vendors in Uttar Pradesh and proffered his services for disaster relief operations in Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Nepal. He later carried on the legacy of Anna Hazare's 2011 Anti-Corruption movement countrywide.[7]

Singh was among those who were involved in the Aam Aadmi Party since its inception in 2012.[8] Singh was in charge of the Punjab state unit of the party as it contested the Punjab Assembly election in February 2017. The party became the largest opposition party in Punjab under his leadership and has the Leader of Opposition in its debut electoral contest. He accused Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia of being complicit with the drug trade and not doing enough to control the menace in Punjab. In turn, Majithia filed a defamation suit against him, Arvind Kejriwal[9] and Ashish Khetan[10] He was spearheading the AAP’s civic polls campaign in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. He was also the Delhi state-in-charge for the elections.

In January 2018, he took an oath as a Rajya Sabha MP from Delhi.[11] Through his "Motion of Thanks" speech, he has spoken about protecting India's democracy and challenged the central government's policies.

Singh has remained active in the Parliament since 2018 and is known for his bold statements against issues in the country. He is a member of the Standing Committee and Consultative Committee on Urban Development, a member of the Silk Board of India and a member of the Parliamentary Friendship Group on Latin American Countries (LAC). He is a former member of the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel. He has participated in several important debates including the Rafale deal for which a 5000 crore defamation suit was filed against him by Anil Ambani group Reliance Defence. Singh also raised discrepancies involving the operational One Stop Centres in the country and the respective fund allocations across the states. Singh has raised concerns related to child deaths due to malnutrition, prevention of child trafficking, stringent punishments for sexual abuse of children amongst others and was felicitated with the PGC Award[12] by UNICEF India in 2020[13] for his efforts.

Singh has also raised questions related to the economic slowdown of the economy, concerns related to non-performing assets in the nation and the increasing loan defaulters in the public and private financial sectors. He has also put forward arguments related to finances spent on various government schemes like Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Prime Minister Awas Yojana (Urban and Rural), Smart Cities Mission and Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers. In March 2020, Singh raised in the Rajya Sabha, the issue of a company in Israel using a picture of Mahatma Gandhi on wine bottle. He urged the government to take the matter into account.[14]

Singh's parliamentary statistics show his exemplary record in the parliament. He was raised 228 starred and unstarred questions in the parliament and introduced 3 Private Member Bills. He has further participated in 142 debates in his tenure of over two years.

In his term as an MP, Singh has provided various works to be carried out in his constituency from his MPLADs fund. In 2018 he donated one crore rupees from MPLAD along with one month of salary towards the Kerala Flood Relief. Some other development activities undertaken by him include provision of an ambulance in the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi, placing street lights and dustbins across Delhi.

COVID-19

On the onset of COVID-19 in India, Singh made relentless efforts of ensuring the safe return of the migrant workers back to the states ever since the lockdown was imposed nationally. He utilised his flight quota of 34 yearly tickets entitled to him as a parliamentarian to arrange flights for 33 migrant workers stranded in Delhi, helping them return to Bihar.[15] He also arranged over 100 buses and initiated a facilitation centre for train journeys to send the migrant workers home. Singh also had a community kitchen running from his residence to provide food and ration to the poor.

Issues related to Uttar Pradesh

Singh has time and again shed light on the issues of corruption and injustices in Uttar Pradesh. He has boldly put forward his opinions on inefficiency of the state government in cases of women safety and caste injustices. Singh led the 'Jan Adhikar Pad Yatra' from Varanasi to Balia in 2018 in Uttar Pradesh. The rally was to oppose the functioning of the Uttar Pradesh government and the incidents of violence and communal riots in the state. He also led the second phase of the movement from Saharanpur to NPida to oppose the various irregularities in the functioning of the Uttar Pradesh government. He joined the protest by "Shiksha Mitras" in Lucknow and also raised their issues in the Rajya Sabha in 2018 of low income and temporary jobs.

Singh also led a rally against the demolition of hundred-year old temples and habitats in Varanasi, owing to the construction of a 700-metre long Kashi-Vishwanath corridor.

On September 2, 2020, 13 FIRs in various districts in a case of sedition were filed against him in Uttar Pradesh after he exposed the corruption and scams taking place in the state. The Uttar Pradesh police had lodged an FIR against him under various sections of the IPC, including 501A (printing or engraving matter knowing it to be defamatory), 120 (a) (conspiracy) and IT Act, on September 2, 2020, at the Hazratganj police station, for undertaking a survey.[16] He got the support of 37 MPs in the Rajya Sabha

He brought to light the instances of corruption related to the COVID-19 equipment in which he mentioned that the oximeters and PPE kits were being sold at inflated prices by the Uttar Pradesh government and demanded a CBI probe into the matter.[17]

Singh demanded a special inquiry by the high court in the case of Vikas Dubey and also visited the families of the policemen. Singh also visited the family of the 19-year-old who was gangraped in Hathras in September 2020.[18]

Farm Bills

On the passing of the farm bills [19] in the Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon session 2020, Singh showed his strong dissent against the "unconstitutional" passing of the bills and called them "Black Laws" for farmers. Sanjay Singh along with seven other members were suspended from the Rajya Sabha for their unruly behaviour in the house by tearing documents, breaking mics and heckling the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Their actions were condemned by several leaders. The event occurred after the three farmer bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha. He even held an overnight peaceful protest the following day in the Rajya Sabha upon his suspension.[20][21][22]

Further, during a visit inside the Central Hall of Parliament when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was paying tributes to the late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Singh along with AAP MP Bhagwant Mann[23] raised slogans demanding complete rollback of three farm laws.[24] He visited and joined the farmers protesting against these bills on Singhu Border.

Singh follows the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia and Chandrashekhar Azad. He has devoted his life towards the welfare of the underprivileged, poor and the marginalised communities. Singh also promotes cleanliness and good sanitation. He was involved in a movement to clean the Gomti River by Shramdan (labour gift) and participated in a protest against corruption within the Clean Gomati River project by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.[25][26] He provided shelter in his residence to Lilawati, an aged woman abandoned by her family. In another instance, he provided aid for a young child's liver transplant in Andhra Pradesh, India. Moreover, he has donated blood over 50 times.

Singh currently resides in Delhi with his father, mother, wife and two children. He married his wife, Anita Singh, in 1994. She completed her post graduation in Sociology from Purvanchal University. Singh also has a brother, Ashutosh Singh, who is a software engineer for Norton Securities[27] and lives in US. His daughter, Vartika Singh made her debut in the movie Mulk. His son, Utkarsh Singh completed his BBA from Delhi University.

• Jan Lokpal Bill 2011