Do we like Rajnath Singh?
Our score: 4 out of 10. His own 2013 words backing Section 377 are real harm for this page, and I found no court record and little verified good to set against it.
Rajnath Singh is India's Defence Minister, a senior BJP figure whose public life stretches back decades. I couldn't find a dated profile page to pin down his early years, so this column sticks to the record I could read: what he has said, what he has done, and who is cross about it.
The freshest stoush is over Operation Sindoor. Critics say his July 2025 Parliament address claimed no Indian soldier was harmed, and the controversy started when six fallen jawans' names were inscribed on the National War Memorial. Congress's Pawan Khera argued he either did not know of the deaths or chose to mislead. The Defence Ministry called that “deliberately misleading and factually incorrect” and said his words were selectively quoted from a longer reply about claims India had lost pilots.
The harm check starts with the thing most relevant to this page. In December 2013, as BJP president, he told a newspaper the party would back Section 377 because “homosexuality is an unnatural act and cannot be supported”. That is his own words, and it is a real mark against him. I found nothing from him since, good or bad, so it sits there as a dated stain rather than a proven pattern.
On migration and religion, he has defended the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, saying “this Act will not take away the citizenship of any people”. He described it as offering citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Where you land depends on whether you take that framing at face value; I only read his side of it here. He also claimed in December 2025 that Nehru wanted to build the Babri Masjid with public funds, and Congress's Imran Masood questioned the claim, noting the lack of a supporting historical document.
He also says things that start diplomatic fights. In November 2025 he said “tomorrow Sindh may return to India again”, and Pakistan's Foreign Office called it “delusional” and “dangerously revisionist”. At the SCO in April 2026 he called Operation Sindoor proof of India's zero tolerance of terrorism, and Congress's Jairam Ramesh called that a “shameful clean chit” to Pakistan. Whether you read those as tough talk or as provocation depends on where you sit on India–Pakistan.
On farmers, in 2021 he defended the Centre's three farm laws and said no clause worked against farmers, but said the government was ready for talks if farmers found one. He has also been on the receiving end of fakery: fact-checkers found a clip circulating in May 2026, linking him to the NEET-UG paper leak row, was actually a 2015 press conference. None of that is his doing.