He was once the Congress’ Great White Hope. Having left rivals like Kamal Nath far, far behind and even edged past once-mentor Arjun Singh, Digvijay Singh was the sort of Congressman Sonia Gandhi wanted all her party members to be. Patrician, sophisticated, a Doon School alumnus, Singh showed the way at a time when the Congress’ fortunes in the rest of India were decidedly on the skids. He ruled as chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh for seven years (1993-2000); and truncated MP for another three (2000-2003). As chief minister, he supported bureaucrats to develop e-governance (it may be passe now, but Madhya’s Pradesh’s experiments with the Internet in the mid-1990s, especially in Dhar district, were hailed the world over) and secured land rights for Dalits and rights for women.

<p><table width='100%' border=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td style='FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 18px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #0253B7;'><B>Aditi Phadnis:</B> A confusing beacon</td></tr><tr><tr><td style='FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 11px; '>Digvijay Singh

<b>Aditi Phadnis:</b> A confusing beacon

Digvijay Singhs stand on saffron terror is baffling the Congress.

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