Ravi Rohmetra
Dr.Karan Singh member Parliament was born to Maharaja Hari Singh and Maharani Tara Devi of Jammu and Kashmir on 9th March 1931 at Cannes in France. Dr. Karan Singh was catapulted into political life at the early age of eighteen when in 1949, he was appointed regent by his father on the intervention of Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. Therefore, he was head of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir for the next eighteen years elected Sadar-e-Riyasat and lastly as Governor.
In 1967, at the age of 36, Dr. Karan Singh joined the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Indra Gandhi. He was elected soon thereafter to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament) from the Udhampur parliamentary constituency in Jammu and Kashmir on Indian National Congress ticket by an overwhelming majority and was reelected from there in 1971, 1977 and 1980. He was the only former rule of a Princely State to Voluntarily surrender his Privy Purse. He put the entire sum into the Hari-Tara Charitable Trust, named his after parents, in the service of the People of India. He converted his Amar Mahal Palace at Jammu into a Museum and Library containing a Priceless Collection of Pahari Miniatures and Modern Indian art as well as his personal Library of over twenty thousand volumes. Dr. Karan Singh also looks after several trusts in Jammu & Kashmir including the Dharmath Trust which administers over a hundred Hindu shrines and temples.
Dr. Karan Singh is now a member of Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of Parliament) and Chairman of its Ethics Committee. He is deputy Leader of Congress Parliamentary Party and Chairman of its foreign Affairs Cell.
Dr. Karan Singh first held the portfolio of Tourism and Civil Aviation for six years, where he created a marked impact by his vision and dynamism. In 1973 he moved to the Ministry of Health and Family Planning. In 1979. He assumed the portfolio of Education and Culture. During the tenures as Minister, Dr. Karan Singh neither drew any salary nor lived in Government accommodation.
Dr. Karan Singh is Chairman of the Virat Hindu Samaj which seeks Social reform on the bases of universal, vedantic value. He passed the Senior cambridge examination from the Doon School, Dehradun in First division, and later graduation from the Jammu and Kashmir University of which he was himself the Chancellor. In 1957, he took M.A. Degree of the Delhi University in Political Science with a first class first creating a University record which is still unbroken. He was then honoured with a doctorate degree from the Delhi University as he wrote a thesis on the Political thought of Sri Aurobindo thus reaching the apex of the brilliant educational career.
Dr. Karan Singh was many years Chancellor of Jammu and Kashmir University as well as the Banaras Hindu University, Chairman of the Central Sanskrit Board, President of the Authors Guild of India, the Commonwelath Society of India and the Delhi music Society. He was the President of India International centre, Chariman of the Auroville Foundation with Personal Rank of Cabinet Minister and member of the U.N.E.S.C.O. International Commission on education for the twenty first century. He is the vice Chariman of the Temple of understanding, a major global interfaith Association. He is member of the U.N.E.S.C.O Project on Universal Ethics. Recently he founded the International Centre of Science, Culture and Consciousness, which is emerging as an important centre of creative thought.
Dr. Karan Singh is chairman of many organization at national and International levels including chairman of I.C.C.R Govt. Of India having a status of the Cabinet Minister. Dr.Karan Singh(Padma Vibhushan) is a renowned statesman, an eminent educationist a competent environmentalist, an author of repute and above all a kind hearted man who has served the country in various capacities.
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