Road named after Arjun Singh

JAMIA'S ARJUN: The HRD minister is savouring his elevated status to Sharah-i-Arjun Singh.

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New Delhi: It's been a long road for HRD Minister Arjun Singh, but look where it's got him - right in the company of Nelson Mandela, Naom Chomsky, Fidel Castro and Sarojini Naidu.

The Jamia Milia University in New Delhi, which has study centers named after these luminaries has now named it's distance learning center after the HRD minister.

And that's not all. In gratitude for his extremely generous grant of Rs 40 crore, a road leading to the teachers residence complex will now be called Shahrah-i-Arjun Singh.

Says VC, Jamia Milia Islamia, Mushirul Hasan, "This is in gratitude for the secular values the minister stands for. Would you rather that we name our buildings after Narendra Modi?"

It may have been a harmless thanks-giving exercise as far as Jamia is concerned, but since Arjun Singh is involved, some controversy is bound to follow.

There are whispers in Parliament that the HRD Minister, who is involved in a tussle with the Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay over minority institutions, wants to show the world who's boss.

However when questioned, Antulay said that he had no comments to make on the subject.

While the HRD minister might be savouring his elevated status to Sharah-i-Arjun Singh, for his party, it's getting a bit embarrassing with the BJP now hitting out at the Minister.

Asks BJP spokesperson V K Malhotra, "The greatest benefactor of Jamia since independence he may be but is he in the league of Mandela or Zakir Hussain?"

Either ways, Arjun Singh has certainly become a legend now - at least in Jamia.