Karan Singh, the man in the middle, spans the arc of history: Mountbatten, Nehru to Modi

There is the Supreme Court verdict in December 2023 which upheld the nullification of Article 370. The court relied on a proclamation issued by “Yuvaraj” Karan Singh, then 18, who had just taken over as Regent of J&K in June 1949.

Former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud quoted from it, how it talked about “full and final surrender of (J&K) sovereignty… to India”, as an input into the SC’s unanimous decision holding the abrogation as final — and seeing it as a done deal.

Now in January 2025, Karan Singh is expressing a concern for his beloved Jammu and Kashmir.

Statehood must be restored in J&K “soonest,” he says, because unless it becomes a fully empowered state, it will “not have the complete powers of democracy”, he tells this writer. Everyone in J&K, cutting across political lines, wants this to happen –the “sooner the better”.

Louder and clearer, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday held the promise of doing the “right thing” at the “right time.”

His “Ichha” (desire) as he moves towards his 94th birthday on March 9?

“I have no ichha, I pray a lot.”

For the country?

“It is a national disaster to see the intense polarisation and extreme language used in Parliament. It needs to function according to tradition and rules of Parliament, where dialogue and persuasion prevail—instead of shouting and gali galaujing… Our Parliamentary democracy has to stabilize, and go back to the normal give and take way of functioning.”

A Congressman from 1967-1979 and again from 2000 to the present – the years in between were in association with smaller parties, some offshoots of the Congress or as an independent MP — Dr Karan Singh is among those very few political figures today who are politically aligned but also exist in the non-political space in what has become a highly contested political arena.

“Curiously,” Karan Singh says with a slight smile , “my life seems to fall neatly into 18-year periods.”

Though his father Maharaja Hari Singh refused to abdicate in 1949, after signing the instrument of accession, he agreed to appoint his only son, then known as Yuvraj Karan Singh as the Regent. Subsequently Karan Singh was to become the Sadr-i-Riyasat (1952-65) and the state’s governor in 1965, when the post of Sadr-i-Riyasat was abolished. “But I was doing the same job (being the head of state).”

In 1967, at 36, he moved to national politics—and joined Indira Gandhi’s cabinet in Delhi—and went on to win Lok Sabha elections in 1971, 1977, 1980, 1984. Either a participant or an eyewitness to major events in the country—he saw the liberation of Bangladesh, the imposition of the Emergency by Indira Gandhi, Operation Bluestar and all the wars with Pakistan.

Rajiv Gandhi sent him as India’s Ambassador to the US in 1989. It is there that Henry Kissinger told him that the Americans knew Indira Gandhi was going to liberate Bangladesh. But “our fear was whether she would turn on Pakistan after that and we could not allow that to happen.”

Karan Singh said he did not agree with Nehru “going to the UN on Kashmir.” “Frankly, to my mind, going (to the UN) could have been avoided…Once we were there, everything got bogged down. Phans gaye wahan.”

The idea of plebiscite “emerged out of the discussions at the UN.”

He blamed Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India. “It was Mountbatten who prevailed on Panditji to go (to the UN)—that, as a big leader of the post-colonial countries, he said, why not set an example by going to the UN—of how to settle issues without a war.

“He pushed Panditji. I don’t know whether it was a miscalculation and he was unaware of the possible consequences or (it was something else).” According to Singh, Sheikh Abdullah “thought he was going to win the plebiscite.”

He recalled how Indira Gandhi “almost ran into Parliament” when Bangladesh was formed and said, “Mr Speaker Sir, I have an announcement to make. Dacca is the capital of an independent country.”

The House exploded. “You can’t imagine the joy,” recalled Singh. “It was as if our own country had become independent…that is why it is so painful to see what is happening in Bangladesh today.”

It was in 2007 that Karan Singh had a brush with the country’s Presidency. Sonia Gandhi told him that she had sent two names for Rashtrapati to the core committee of Congress and Left parties, which were propping the UPA government in power at the time. When the meeting took place, Sonia Gandhi first mentioned the name of Shivraj Patil. But the Left leaders ruled it out. “Then my name came, some said he is well educated and qualified. Then (CPI leaders) D Raja and AB Bardhan said, ‘We are a socialist county, how can we select a Maharaja as President?’” It was then the decision was taken to go for a woman as President, Singh recalled, and they zeroed in on Pratibha Patil. Later, Dr Manmohan Singh had apologised to him. “Doctor Saheb, I am very sorry, ” Manmohan Singh had told him, said Karan Singh.

His study of world religions, the Upanishads and the spiritual gurus he had from the Shaiva, Vaishnav, Sufi and Shakti streams, helped him acquire the image of a Hindu philosopher. So did his membership of the executive board of UNESCO and as the president of the ICCR, when he set up cultural centres around the world.

Interestingly, it was the RSS which sent word to Indira Gandhi that she should bring back Karan Singh into her orbit as it would help her acquire a pro-Hindu image after she lost the elections in 1977. She had been furious with him for leaving the Congress and deposing against her at the Shah Commission probing the Emergency excesses. Subsequently, she patched up with him in the early ’80s. He organised Hindu sammelans all over the country for Hindu unity.

Karan Singh called Jawaharlal Nehru his “mentor” even as, over the last 10 years, he has enjoyed a cordial relationship with Narendra Modi. His interventions in the public domain since 2014 have been nuanced. A couple of years ago, he raised eyebrows when he said (to this writer): “If there is a Prime Minister Narendra Modi can be compared with, it is Jawaharlal Nehru… I suspect he will never admit this but he would like to be another Nehru and to surpass him.”

In his musings over his past and the future—he hopes for a mid-day meal for every child in India—Dr Karan Singh is, essentially, a man of the middle. For many, discovering the “middle (path)” is what India is all about, a way which can harmonise its kaleidoscopic colours and smoothen its sharp political angularities.

There are few today who can even attempt to do that.

(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 11 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of ‘How Prime Ministers Decide’)