Raj Kumar Singh (born 20 December 1952) is a former Indian bureaucrat and former Union Cabinet Minister in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

(2014 - 2024). He was the Member of the Indian Parliament for

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, India, Bhojpur ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, from May 2014 to 4 June 2024. Singh is a 1975 batch

cadre

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the Public administration, administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian ...

officer and former Home Secretary of India. On 3 September 2017, he was appointed the Minister of Power (Independent Charge) in Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

's cabinet. On 30 May 2019, he was appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the Government of India, headed by current cabinet (government), Union Cabinet Minister Pralhad Joshi, that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual prope ...

and Minister of State in the

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (), established on 9 November 2014 and gazetted on 8 December 2014, is a ministry of the Government of India. After the formation of Narendra Modi's first government on 26 May 2014, the Min ...

. On 7 July 2021, he was elevated to the rank of

Cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

Early life and education

Singh was born in

Supaul Supaul is a town and municipality that is headquarters of Supaul district in the States and territories of India, Indian state of Bihar. There are 11 blocks under the Supaul district: Supaul, Kishanpur, Saraigarh-Bhaptiyahi, Pipra, Triveniganj, ...

in a Gandhavariya

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

family in Bihar. He gained a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(Hons.) degree in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

, an

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

and a diploma in Management. He was educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi,

Magadh University Magadh University is a public state university and institution of higher education located in Bodhgaya, Bihar. It provides facilities for higher learning and research in the faculties of science, social sciences, humanities and commerce. With 3 ...

and

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Bureaucrat career

He was the district magistrate in

East Champaran East Champaran or Purvi Champaran is an administrative district in the Tirhut division of the state of Bihar in India. The district headquarter is located at Motihari. Prior to 1971, there was a single Champaran District. On 1 December 1971, ...

and

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

in the 1980s before joining the state home department in 1997. On 30 October 1990, R.K. Singh, who was then posted as Registrar Cooperatives, Govt. of Bihar in Patna, was asked to arrest Advani in Samastipur, while Advani's

Ram Rath Yatra The ''Ram Rath Yatra'' was a political and religious rally that lasted from September to October 1990. It was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist affiliates, and led by the then-president of the BJP, L. K ...

was en route to

Ayodhya Ayodhya () is a city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ayodhya district as well as the Ayodhya division of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ayodhya became th ...

in Uttar Pradesh from

Somnath Prabhas Patan, historically named Dev Patan, is a locality in Veraval, Gujarat. As the site of the Somnath temple and its associated Jyotirlinga (an aniconic representation of the god Shiva), it is an important place of Hindu pilgrimage. Pl ...

in Gujarat. For this Mr. Singh was empowered through a special order by the then Chief Minister

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 with a brief interruption in 1995 and as the union minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009. He is the founder and president o ...

and sent on deputation to Samastipur as Additional Magistrate. The arrest was made by order of the

government. The complete operation was so secret that even the then DM and SP of Samastipur were not aware about the arrest plan. During the

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the 22nd chief minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previously held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. He is Bihar's longest ...

government's first term (2004–2009), Singh, as principal secretary in the road construction department, played an important role in improving the condition of roads in Bihar. In the

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

-led government, the then Home Minister, Advani, selected Singh to work as joint secretary in the Home Ministry for five years from 1999 to 2004. R.K. Singh was Union Home Secretary of India from 30 June 2011 to 30 June 2013, after that he retired from service. In 2013, Singh was tipped to be adviser (infrastructure) in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, a post created through cabinet approval. However, he did not accept the assignment. Before his appointment as Union home Secretary, Union Defence Minister

A. K. Antony Arackaparambil Kurien Antony (born 28 December 1940) is an Indian lawyer, attorney and statesman who served as the Minister of Defence of India from 2006 to 2014, making him the longest serving Defence Minister in India. He previously served as ...

had picked Singh to head the department of defence production in 2009 in view of his clean reputation. Singh was chosen by the then Union Home Minister

P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee o ...

for his efficiency and no-nonsense attitude. Known to be a tough taskmaster, Chidambaram got along well with Singh at a professional level. However, Singh had several run-ins with Chidambaram's successor,

Sushilkumar Shinde Sushilkumar Sambhaji Shinde (born 4 September 1941) is an Indian former police officer and statesman from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Power in the Manmohan Singh government, and the Leader of the ...

, who was not happy with the home secretary's handling of the situation following 16 December 2012 Delhi gang rape. It was during the tenure of R.K. Singh as the Union home secretary that 26/11 Mumbai attack terrorist Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru were hanged. R.K. Singh after retirement also revealed Shinde's involvement in the IPL Spot-fixing case and how Shinde had interfered in that investigation. Shinde also met the accused Shahid Balwa at his North Block office even after R.K. Singh's statements regarding Shinde's involvement in the IPL spot-fixing case.

Political career

There was speculation that Singh would contest from the Bihar constituencies of either

in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, though

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

objected to him contesting from Supaul. On 13 December 2013, Singh joined the BJP. He contested the election as a BJP candidate in Arrah, beating his nearest rival, Sribhagwan Singh Kushwaha of

RJD The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: National People's Party) is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has traditionally been Othe ...

by a margin of over 1,35,000 votes. In the 2019 General Elections conducted for the formation of the

17th Lok Sabha The 17th Lok Sabha was formed by the members elected in the 2019 Indian general election. Elections, all across India, were conducted in seven phases from 11 April 2019 to 19 May 2019 by the Election Commission of India. Counting started offici ...

, he again contested from

and retained his seat becoming the first MP from Arrah since Chandradeo Prasad Verma to retain his seat in successive elections. He defeated his nearest rival Raju Yadav of CPI (ML) Liberation by 1,47,285 votes. On 3 September 2017, Mr. Singh was appointed Minister of Power (Independent Charge) and Minister of New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) by

. This post was previously held by

Piyush Goyal Piyush Vedprakash Goyal (born 13 June 1964) is an Indian politician who is serving as Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India), Minister of Commerce and Industry since 2019. He also served as Minister of Textiles (India), Minister of Textiles ...

. In May 2019, Singh was appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) for

Power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...

and New and Renewable Energy and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. In the

2024 Indian general election General elections were held in Elections in India, India from 2024 elections in India, 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect all List of constituencies of the Lok Sabha, 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the res ...

he lost his MP seat from Arrah, Bihar to

Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI(ML)L) is a communist political party in India. The party is represented in Bihar and Jharkhand Legislative Assemblies. Since 2023, the party is also a member of the INDIA bloc ...

candidate

Sudama Prasad Sudama Prasad (born 2 February 1961) is an Indian politician, member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly who serves as a Member of Parliament in the 18th Lok Sabha from Arrah Lok Sabha constituency, Arrah. He was elected in the 2024 Indian general ...

by the margin of 59808 votes.

Personal life

He married Sheila Singh on 27 February 1975. They have a son and a daughter together.

References

External links

Bihar Breakthrough - RK Singh
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, R. K. Bihar cadre civil servants Indian Administrative Service officers People from Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar People from Supaul district 1953 births Living people India MPs 2014–2019 People from Arrah India MPs 2019–2024 Narendra Modi ministry Ministers of power of India