Арджун Сингх: Мадхья-Прадештің бұрынғы бас министрі және саяси өмірі

12th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, India

Arjun Singh (5 November 1930 – 4 March 2011) was an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress, who served twice as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s. He also served twice as the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, in the Manmohan Singh and P. V. Narasimha Rao ministries. He is widely remembered for introducing 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes in educational institutions including IITs, NITs, IIMs and AIIMS, with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment and Central Educational Institutions(CEIs) (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006.

Arjun Singh was the son of Shiv Bahadur Singh, a jagirdar and the 26th Rao of Churhat thikana, and an INC politician.

Arjun Singh was first elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1957 from Majholi as an independent candidate. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1960. He was re elected from Majholi in 1962 and became a minister in the INC government of Dwarka Prasad Mishra. In 1967, he lost the election from Churhat due to a fallout with the then chief minister Dwarka Prasad Mishra. However, he won a bypoll in the same year from Umaria. He was elected from Sidhi in 1972 and became a minister in the INC government of Prakash Chandra Sethi. This amendment enabled provision of reservation (27%) for Other Backward Class(OBCs) in government as well as private educational institutions. This decision of government lead to the 2006 Indian anti reservation protests. On 10 April 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the law for the provision of 27% quota for candidates belonging to the Other Backward Classes in IITs, NITs, IIMs, AIIMS and other premier educational institutions. But it directed the government to exclude the "creamy layer", families whose annual salary in more than ₹4,50,000, among the OBCs while implementing the law. However, the "creamy layer" exclusion would not be applied to the SC/STs.

Arjun Singh was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh when the deadly gas leak from the Union Carbide factory occurred. It is widely alleged that on the fateful night between 2 and 3 December 1984, when the gas leak occurred, Arjun Singh fled to his Kerwa Dam Palace (outside Bhopal) to save himself from deadly effects of leaked gas and was not available to manage the crisis or lead the administration. Subsequently, the Arjun Singh government's mishandling was criticised by the court in the verdict on the Bhopal disaster as pronounced by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal on 7 June 2010. The media raised serious questions about his role in the release of Warren Anderson. In particular, the pilot of the aircraft in which Warren Anderson flew out of India after the gas leak, has recorded that the final sanction to permit the flight came from Arjun Singh's office.

While Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Singh was involved in the scandal known as the Churhat Lottery case. The Churhat Children Welfare Society was floated in 1982 by relatives of Singh, and permitted to raise funds via lottery, and also given tax relief as a charity. However, there were widespread allegations that substantial sums of money were siphoned off from donations and used to construct the lavish Kerwa Dam Palace near Bhopal. The donations to the society included a Rs 150,000 donation from Union Carbide,
However, a one judge commission investigating the scandal gave a clean chit to Arjun Singh. The case was re opened however, after the Jain Hawala case, and Singh was asked to submit fresh re estimates of the palace cost. In court, the case was argued by Kapil Sibal and the order for re examination was squashed on the grounds that it had been issued in a haste and "had not applied his mind". The case Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India challenged the government decision. In March 2007, the Supreme Court of India granted an injunction to suspension of OBC reservations. In April 2008, a 5 member constitutional bench of the Supreme Court upheld the Constitution (93rd Amendment) Act, and reinstated the Act in a judgement delivered by Chief Justice India K. G. Balakrishnan, with Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari. OBC reservations were implemented in all central universities and institutions, but the government was required to exclude the creamy layer from the OBC, but not SC/ST.

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. This followed his denouncement of the Ekal Vidyalayas, one teacher schools run for the benefit of the tribals of India by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, as communal. A case under the Anti Dowry Act was registered against Arjun Singh in 2007. The then Uttar Pradesh government had decided to seek CBI inquiry into dowry harassment case. Arjun Singh was accused of irregularities and corruption in the grant of "Deemed University" status to private for profit educational institutions which did not meet requisite educational standards, during his tenure as Minister for Human Resources Development. The Government of India initiated proceedings to repeal the "Deemed University" status of 44 such institutions in January 2010.

Singh died on 4 March 2011, at the age of 80. He had been admitted in Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences with chest pain and neurological problems, and died of a heart attack. He was cremated at his home town of Churhat.

Arjun Singh's son Ajay Singh aka Rahul Bhaiya is an INC politician and former Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly. His grandson is Arunoday Singh, a Bollywood actor. Another grandson of his, Yuvaraja Aishwarya Singh of Singrauli is married to Devyani Rana, great granddaughter of Mohan Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, the last Shree Teen Maharaja of Nepal. Devyani’s father His Highness Shree Teen Maharaja Pashupati Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana is the titular Shree Teen Maharaja of Nepal.