NEW DELHI, India: The Minister of State for defense, a close associate of the Prime Minister, Mr. Arun Singh has resigned from the Council of Ministers. Coming close after the resignation of Amitabh Bachchan, another close associate of the Prime Minister, the exit of Arun Singh deepens the crisis in the ruling party and the government at the Centre according to Indian Express. Arun Singh’s resignation was accepted by President Zail Singh, last night. It is also said that Satish Kumar Sharma, a Congress (1) Rajya Sabha member now close to Rajiv Gandhi who has also submitted his resignation from Parliament, was not available for comment. Arun Singh is the second’ minister to resign this week after the Tourism Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed tendered his resignation on July 14th. According to a report in the political circles some other Ministers of the Prime Minister who have become controversial and are under cloud, are likely to quit. The resignation of Arun Singh from the Council of Ministers is significant because he was handling sensitive defense matters even while he was a Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister before he was entrusted the defense portfolio as Minister of State. In the initial days of Rajiv Gandhi’s Prime Minister ship, it was Arun Singh and Arun Nehru, a former Minister of State for Internal Secretary who were close to the Prime Minister.
After Arun Nehru was dropped from the Cabinet, Arun Singh survived and continued in the government. Arun singh who was an administrative expert in a business firm before he joined politics was close to Rajiv Gandhi from the beginning of Mr. Gandhi’s political
Career. His continued dissociation with Gandhi in the government has lately been a subject of comment.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1987
