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| HRD Minister embarrasses Cong president | | Sonia under presure to remove Arjun Singh | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, AUG. 28: The Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) and Congress veteran, Arjun Singh, is in trouble, with a section of Congressmen, including at least a dozen party MPs, opposing his continuance in the Council of Ministers headed by Manmohan Singh. Arjun Singh's critics within the Congress party are building pressure on Sonia Gandhi for his removal from the Congress-led coalition government.
The controversial HRD Minister is, of late, creating problems both for the government and for his party leadership. Arjun Singh, according to his critics within the Congress party, has not been, in recent times, a source of strength for his party leadership. Sonia Gandhi is reported to be upset with the controversies triggered by Arjun Singh--first with his reservation-for-backwards card and then with his 'order' for singing of Vande Matram in all educational institutions across the country on September 7.
According to knowledgeable sources, Arjun Singh avoided holding detailed discussions with his party leadership--Sonia Gandhi, to be precise--and Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, before he dashed off a letter to Chief Ministers. Pointing out that the year-long commemoration of 100 years of Vande Matram's adoption was coming to a close on September 7, Arjun Singh's letter said: "As a befitting finale to the commemoration year, it has been decided that the first two stanzas of Vande Matram should be sung simultaneously in all schools, colleges and other educational institutions throughout the country".
This led Muslim clerics not only in Delhi but also in several other parts of the country to express themselves strongly against the singing of Vande Matram. Worse still, a set of rigid clerics in Hyderabad and UP asked Muslims not to sing the national song. Delhi Jama Masjid's Shahi Imam, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, went all the way to Allahabad to describe any attempt o make Muslims sing the national song as "oppression of Muslims".
And after the BJP government in Chhattisgarh directed all the schools, colleges and other educational institutions to ensure that Vande Matram is sung on September 7, some Muslims leaders described the move as un-Islamic. The controversy triggered by the HRD Minister has refused to die down even after Arjun Singh was forced to clarify that the government "never said singing of Vande Matram would be compulsory on September 7".
If Arjun Singh was also forced to get into touch with some senior Muslim leaders to make his government's position clear, the Opposition BJP and Sangh Parivar seemed somewhat satisfied with the material supplied to them by the HRD Minister's pro-Vande Matram stance. They charged Arjun Singh with trying to appease a minority community by rescinding an earlier decison on its compulsory recitation.
Arjun Singh has also kicked up a controversy following his "provocative" handling of his fellow community members the other day. When a group of Rajputs called on him, he virtually inflicted a shock on them byu saying that he himself is not a leader of Rajputs. Hence, they should not live under any such illusion, was Arjun Singh's message to Rajputs.
Signifcantly, the aggrieved Rajputs were quick to react. When Arjun Singh went to Varanasi, not a single Rajput leader was present there to welcome him.
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