JEDDAH, 31 May 2006 — Many Saudis will be learning more about Arjun Singh, India’s minister of human resources development, who is currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia to strengthen educational ties between the two countries. The minister arrived Monday night in Riyadh at the head of a delegation of India’s leading academics.
What many Saudis may not realize is that Arjun Singh has played a pivotal role in Indian politics for decades and is credited with preserving that nation’s secular identity during dark times in the 1990s after the destruction of the Babri Masjid, a 400-year-old mosque, when a wave of communal intolerance threatened India’s character of tolerance and diversity. A loyal supporter of the Gandhis, he helped rebuild the Congress party and restored Muslim confidence in the party after it was hijacked by P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had given in to communal forces. Arjun Singh was instrumental in the restoration of freedom and helped Sonia Gandhi wrest power from the communalists.
Perhaps the most important lesson to learn from Arjun Singh is his respect for all whether they are part of a minority or the majority. It was he who purged the hatred and intolerance from the textbooks of India after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s fall from power, ensuring a secular future of freedom for people of all faiths in India.
As minister of human resources development, Arjun Singh has ensured that India’s young people of all hues get the education and training needed to drive the Subcontinent giant’s economy to the next level of development while garnering a rising standard of living for its people that might have been unimaginable a decade ago.
He long ago roved his mettle and his secular credentials when he was at the helm of affairs at India’s second biggest state, Madhya Pradesh, where Muslims formed a large portion of the electorate. Bhopal, the state capital, was once a princely state ruled by a Muslim, and the prince had a great say during the pre-partition era. Muslims of Bhopal, which later became the capital of Madhya Pradesh, threw their lot with Arjun Singh because of his transparent and secular character, and the state prospered under his governance and leadership.
A true statesman, Arjun Singh’s business has always been the Indian people’s business, and he has held ministerial positions under Rao, Rajiv Gandhi and the current prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
During his visit, Arjun Singh is expected to expedite the implementation of the declaration that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Manmohan Singh signed in New Delhi earlier this year to strengthen educational ties between the two countries.
Cooperative agreements between Indian and Saudi universities are expected to come out of the visit, and Arjun Singh, now in his 70s, may be able to give Saudi educators and civic leaders insights on how to purge the cultural baggage from the Kingdom’s educational system and replace it with the lessons that lead to a future of economic growth and prosperity.
