Need to 'reinvent' Cong behind Arjun's OBC quota move

Arjun Singh, Minister for Human Resource Development, speaks very little. He thinks a lot.

Opposition parties can go blue in the face, asserting that they too supported the move for more inclusive higher education policies for the socially and educationally backward castes, or other backward classes (OBCs), but the fact is that the HRD ministry steered the policy and stuck by it even when it began to hurt.

The move reflects Arjun Singh's conviction, dating back to the 1980s, that in some states at least, the Congress must reinvent itself as a backward class party.

In 1982, soon after he was made chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, in a legislature party election presided over by none other than Pranab Mukherjee (his rivals were the two Shukla brothers "" Shyamacharan and Vidyacharan "" and Shivbhanu Singh Solanki, a powerful tribal leader), Singh resolved that the only way to stave off a permanent challenge to him was to create a vote bank that he could rely upon in the state.

The same year, he set up the Ramjilal Mahajan Commission, mandated with finding out ways in which the backward classes could be integrated with the mainstream.

While at the Centre, Indira Gandhi put away the Mandal Commission report in cold storage, Arjun Singh implemented the Mahajan Commission's report, which had recommended reservation in educational institutions for OBCs, in toto.

When he returned to the Centre as the HRD minister in 2004 in the United Progressive Alliance government and considered ways to implement socially inclusive policies, this was one tried and tested stratagem he revived.

The minorities have also been Singh's preoccupation. This has worked particularly well this time around "" his project of rewriting textbooks earned him high praise from the two crucial UPA partners "" the CPI(M) and the CPI. D Raja of the CPI has publicly praised his efforts. The appointment of Mushirul Hasan as vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia University was applauded by the Left parties. Hasan too stood as an intellectual bulwark in Singh's favour when the National Knowledge Commission criticised his reservation policies on the grounds that they would impinge on the autonomy of institutions of higher education.

The Commission felt absolute numbers of higher education institutions should be increased instead of involving them in politics.

As the HRD minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, Singh used the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to raise the banner of revolt against the Rao government. He charged that the government hadn't done enough to get to the bottom of the case.

Through this, he hoped to gain the support and blessings of Sonia Gandhi. However, Gandhi refused to preside over a Congress split along factional lines and Singh, along with ND Tewari, Sheila Dixit, K Natwar Singh and Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, found himself out of the Congress and in the cold.

Gandhi, it could be construed, showed regrettable lack of gratitude and reinstated him but in the same ministry he had occupied earlier. Thus Singh got little to compensate for his endeavours.

Last week, when Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar suggested that the UPA declare Manmohan Singh as their nominee for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, Arjun Singh said he thought Rahul Gandhi was not too young to be made prime minister.

This, despite the fact that the two have widely divergent views on education, especially the issue of foreign universities setting shop in India, an issue on which Gandhi has had a scrap with CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat. Arjun Singh is strongly opposed to allowing foreign universities to come to India.

In the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the chances are that it will be BJP's Sushma Swaraj who will contest from Hoshangabad, the constituency he has contested and lost thrice in the past few elections.

At 76, his age is telling now, but Singh continues to be one of the UPA's most cerebral "" and most political "" ministers.