TRIBUTE PAID TO ARJUN SINGH- CONGRESS LEADER

    Arjun Singh, Congress leader, passed away on 4th March,2011. Mr Singh who had  been admitted to AIIMS with chest pain and neurology-related problems.He was 81. he is survives his wife Saroj Devi, two sons Ajay Singh and Abhimanyu and daughter Veena.
  
The veteran leader, who in 1992 was elected to the congress working committee (CWC) with the highest margin of votes. Mr Singh held various tenures  in Madhya pradesh= graduating from State minister to Chief minister, a post he held thrice.He was also governor of Punjab briefly. He retuning to the union cabinet as Human Resource Development Ministry in 2004, he repeatedly ran in to opposition first for setting out to de -saffronise the education system and then  for proposing reservation for other backward caste(OBC) in higher education. He  refused to allow foreign universities to enter the country and wanted the IIT and IIMS to toe his line on fee structuring.Under Mr Singh's supervision, the national council of Education Research and Training transformed from an ideologically compromised body to a professionally run institution. OBC reservation turned out to be a gargantuan task, requiring the  admission process to be over handed and expanded to meet the aspirations of all sectons. But he stuck to his decision and saw it through. In the party, Mr Singh came to be regarded more and inflexible old guard.It dis not help him that his prime mister was Dr Singh, whose reform project he had bitterly opposed in 1991.

Prof. John Kurakar