Hyderabad: Inaugurating the Dr Manmohan Singh Earth Sciences University at Kothagudem, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy Tuesday said the naming of the educational institution after Singh was a tribute to the former PM under whose tenure Telangana achieved statehood.
In recognising the contributions of the two-term UPA PM, CM Revanth Reddy went one step ahead of his Congress counterparts in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka who renamed existing institutions in their states after Singh earlier this year.
While the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government renamed the Himachal Pradesh Institute of Public Administration as the Dr Manmohan Singh Himachal Pradesh Institute of Public Administration in January, the Siddaramaiah cabinet approved the renaming of the Bengaluru City University as Dr Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University in July.
Singh, a renowned economist, who served as PM from 2004 to 2014, and as the country’s finance minister from 1991 to 1996—a period known for economic liberalisation and industrial reforms—passed away on 26 December 2024.
Days after his demise, the Congress’ student wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging that the Delhi University’s new college campus be named after Singh instead of Veer Savarkar.
PM Modi laid the foundation stone for Veer Savarkar College at Najafgarh on 3 January.
Two weeks later, the BJP demanded that the Congress party name its new headquarters at Kotla Marg in New Delhi after Manmohan Singh, as “a meaningful gesture to honour his legacy”, even as posters appeared outside the building demanding it be named Sardar Manmohan Singh Bhavan.
“Naming the building after Singh would be a meaningful gesture to honour his legacy and address the disrespect he endured during his lifetime, particularly from the Gandhi family,” BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya posted on X at the time.
However, dismissing the demand and the posters as a BJP conspiracy, Congress leader Anil Shastri had said the name Indira Bhavan for the modern party headquarters was decided upon long ago.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi inaugurated Indira Bhavan on 15 January, in the presence of party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and others, giving the grand old party a new address, relocating from its decades-old one—24, Akbar Road.
Nevertheless, commemorating the only Sikh PM’s birth anniversary, Sonia Gandhi, on 23 September, opened the Dr Manmohan Singh Research Centre and Library set up within the Indira Bhawan. Gursharan Kaur, wife of Singh, was among those present on the occasion.
Addressing a public meeting at the foundation-laying, Revanth said that the Palvoncha area, where the first unit of the Kothagudem thermal power station was set up in the mid-sixties, gave rise to the statehood agitation as most of the jobs went to non-locals, even though the farmers there parting with their land for the project.
“Today, it is a great occasion, naming the earth sciences university after former PM Singh who fulfilled the decades-long public aspirations of a separate state,” said Revanth Reddy, referring to the first phase of statehood agitation in the late 1960s.
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014, passed in Parliament in February 2014, while the UPA-2 was in power, bifurcated the united state into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from 2 June 2014.
‘BRS was ungrateful to Singh’
Speaking before Revanth Reddy, state revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said the previous K. Chandrasekhar Rao government, despite being in power for about 10 years, showed no gratitude towards the former PM and never thought of honouring him.
CM Revanth Reddy also praised first PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision and execution, which he said endowed the nation with several top-class educational institutions and irrigation projects like Nagarjuna Sagar, Bhakra Nangal and Srisailam.
“It is education and irrigation that will take Telangana to greater heights,” said the CM.
Touted as the first of its kind university in the country, MSESU, located in the Singareni coal belt in northern Telangana, is expected to take advantage of the area’s geological diversity, mineral wealth and ecological systems for research activities and to produce experts in mineral resources, environmental protection, groundwater management, etc.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: ‘If you succeed, we share credit, if you fail…’—how Narsimha Rao brought in Manmohan Singh as FM