Rajnath Singh is a prominent Indian politician and the current Defense Minister of India. He was born on July 10, 1951, in the Bhabhaura village of Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh. Singh started his political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 1980s and has held several key positions in the party and the government.
Singh began his political journey as a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, and later joined the BJP. He was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1977, and subsequently won five more assembly elections in 1980, 1985, 1989, 1991, and 1993. Singh also served as the Minister of Agriculture in the Uttar Pradesh state government from 1991 to 1992.
In 1994, Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, from the Lucknow constituency. He went on to win the seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2004 general elections. During his tenure in the Lok Sabha, Singh served as the Minister of Surface Transport, Minister of Agriculture, and Minister of Home Affairs in the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Singh became the President of the BJP in December 2005, succeeding L.K. Advani. He led the party in the 2009 general elections, in which the BJP won 116 seats in the Lok Sabha. Singh resigned from the post of BJP President in 2009 and was succeeded by Nitin Gadkari.
In May 2014, following the BJP’s victory in the general elections, Singh was appointed as the Union Home Minister in the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As Home Minister, Singh oversaw several important initiatives, including the launch of the Smart Cities Mission, the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and the creation of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the National Security Guard (NSG).
In June 2019, Singh was appointed as the Defense Minister of India, succeeding Nirmala Sitharaman. In this role, Singh has been responsible for overseeing India’s defense policy and modernization efforts, including the procurement of new weapons systems and technologies, the expansion of the Indian Navy’s capabilities, and the strengthening of India’s strategic partnerships with other countries.
One of Singh’s key achievements as Defense Minister has been the successful testing of the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), which is a missile system capable of traveling at speeds of over Mach 6. The HSTDV was developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and tested in September 2020, making India the fourth country in the world to have developed this technology.
Under Singh’s leadership, India has also made significant progress in its space program, with the successful launch of several satellites and the establishment of the Defense Space Research Agency (DSRA) to coordinate India’s military space activities.
Singh has also played an important role in strengthening India’s defense ties with other countries, including the United States, Japan, and Russia. In February 2021, Singh held a meeting with his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in which the two sides discussed issues such as military cooperation, regional security, and defense technology.
Rajnath Singh is a highly respected and influential politician in India, with a long and distinguished career in both the state and national governments. His latest achievement as Defense Minister of India has been the successful testing of the HSTDV missile system, which has demonstrated India’s growing technological capabilities and its commitment
