Arjun Singh

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Arjun Singh, (Hindi: अर्जुन सिंह born November 5, 1930) is an Indian politician from the Congress party. He is the Union Minister of Human Resource Development in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and was earlier in the same post in the 1991 Narasimha Rao government.

Contents 1 Family and early life 2 Career 3 Positions held 4 Controversies 5 Reservation Controversy 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Family and early life

Arjun Singh was born in Churhat, Distt. Sidhi, Madhya Pradesh. He belongs to the Churhat Jagir under ex-Princely State of Rewa.^[1] His father, Rao Shiv Bahadur Singh, was also a politician.

He was educated at Allahabad University and Agra University (B.A., LL.B.).

Arjun Singh is married to Saroj devi of Pratapgarh near Amarpatan in Satna M.P. and the couple have two sons and a daughter.

[edit] Career

Arjun Singh was a minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao cabinet but he resigned after the Babri Masjid demolition. At the time, he formed All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) with the support of Ex- CM of UP and Uttaranchal Mr. Narayan Dutt Tiwari as President, but they lost 1996 Loksabha elections and the Congress too lost power at the center. Later he returned back to Congress and lost again from Hoshangabad in 1999. He got elected for Rajyasabha in April 2000 which he is continuing. He twice served as a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, and held the post of Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh three times & Governor of Punjab once for a short period. As Governor of Punjab worked for Rajiv-Longwal Accord for peace in Punjab. He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 2000. He takes keen interest in social work and has been closely associated with various social and cultural organizations.

In early 2008, there has been pressure on him to quit his Cabinet post due to his constant ill-health. He has been offered the Governorship of Maharashtra instead. On February 21, 2008, the President of the Indian National Congress, Sonia Gandhi, met his wife Saroj Devi requesting her to persuade Arjun Singh to give up his cabinet post.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Positions held

• 1957-85 Member, Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly M.L.A.
• Sept.1963-Dec.1967 Minister of State for Agriculture, General Administration Department (GAD) and Information & Public Relations, Government of Madhya Pradesh
• 1967 Minister of Planning and Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh
• 1972-77 Minister of Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh
• 1977-80 Leader of Opposition, Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly
• 1980-85 Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh
• March - Nov. 1985 Governor of Punjab
• Nov. 1985 - Jan. 1986 Minister of Commerce, Government of India
• Dec.1985- June 1988 Member, Eighth Lok Sabha
• Oct. 1986 - Feb. 1988 Minister of Communications, Government of India
• 1988-91 Member, Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly
• Feb.1988¬ Jan. 1989 Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh
• June 1991 - Dec. 1994 Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India
• June 1991 - May 1996 Member, Tenth Lok Sabha
• June 1996 - Lost from Satna, Eleventh Lok Sabha
• April 1998 - Lost from Hoshangabad, Twelfth Lok Sabha
• April 2000 Elected to Rajya Sabha
• 15 May 2000 - Feb. 2004 Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs
• 31 August 2001- July 2004 Member, Committee on Rules
• April 2002 - Feb. 2004 Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Purposes Committee
• 22 May 2004 onwards Minister of Human Resource^[2]

He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh without opposition on March 20, 2006.^[3]

[edit] Controversies

While Arjun Singh was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, he was involved in the scandal which was called by some the Churhat Lottery case in the 1980s, in which allegations, never proved, were levelled that he had helped set up a phony state lottery.[1]

His Karwa Dam palace has been differently assessed between 10 to 20 crore although he claims that it cost him only forty lakhs to build.[2]

After the Mumbai train bombings of 2006, he reportedly quoted at a Cabinet meeting the statements of a former judge of the Maharashtra High Court that an earlier attempt on the headquarters of the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Nagpur had been a plot set into motion by the Sangh itself.^[4]. This follows his denouncement of the Ekal Vidyalayas, one-teacher schools run for the benefit of the tribals of India by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad [3], as communal. [4]

A case under the Anti-Dowry Act has been registered against Arjun Singh.[5]Mayawati government has decided to seek CBI inquiry into dowry harassment case .[6]

[edit] Reservation Controversy

Additional controversy was created in 2005 by drafting the proposed 104th Amendment Bill to the constitution, which subsequently became the 93rd Amendment. According to this amendment, which has yet to pass the 'Basic Structure' test of constitutionality by the Supreme Court, all private unaided educational institutes could be asked by their State Governments to reserve seats for designated Other Backward Classes. In early 2006, Singh also sought to increase caste-based reservation quotas for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the internationally reputed Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, along with other Indian central government run institutes of higher studies, from 22.5% to 49.5%, a measure which came under intense criticism by the press and by the anti-reservation student community. In order to placate the general category students (upper caste students), he proposed that overall seats be increased over a short period of time so that the absolute number of general category seats remain the same.

The National Knowledge Commission, a body of academics and intellectuals who report directly to the Prime Minister on matters of educational policy, strongly opposed the move. Following a public statement by Singh questioning the Commission's members' knowledge of the Constitution, the NKC also strongly criticised him for what it described as his efforts to "obfuscate" the issue [7].

Arjun Singh plans to impose quotas not just in 32 Central institutions, but also in over 100 deemed universities. The proposed legislation will give the Government unprecedented power over even private unaided institutions - to regulate their fees, selection procedure, and also take punitive action. [8] However he has faced opposition on this move from upper-caste dominated student organizations.

He noted, in the context of Dalit Muslim reservations that "the UPA is entirely committed towards the cause of Muslims".^[5]

[edit] See also

• Indian anti-reservation protests, 2006
• Reservation in India
• Forward Castes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• HRD Ministry's Web Site
• Arjun Singh's Rajya Sabha Web Page
• [9]
• [10]
• Arjun singh's recent interview with Karan Thapar on reservation issue

Preceded by Sunderlal Patwa	Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh First Tenure 1980–1985	Succeeded by Motilal Vora
Preceded by Motilal Vora	Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Second Tenure 1988–1989	Succeeded by Motilal Vora