Here is news from The Tribune India Aug 6, 2003
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030806/edit.htm#7
Bidding farewell to a dear old friend
by Amrik Singh
IN old age, one cannot make new friends. Another penalty of getting old is that one's friends begin to leave, one by one, and one almost becomes friendless. I am in that state of mind.
In bidding farewell to Sarup Singh whom I had known for half a century, this is exactly my state of mind. I remember my walking up to him one day soon after he had returned from London after having completed his Ph.D. I introduced myself and said that I too wanted to go to London for the same purpose. Since that day, there was never an occasion when we were not in touch with each other.
This is on the personal plane. He had a number of qualities which I admired and I would like to believe that there must have been something in me also that he liked. To go on to the public plane, however, here was a man who rose from humble beginnings in a village near Rohtak and went on to play a number of distinguished roles in the country. If I may be permitted to say so, I regard him as one of the most distinguished sons of Haryana.
He was the first person who had joined Delhi University as its Vice-Chancellor after having been enrolled as its student. Step by step, he rose to various offices and became its Vice-Chancellor. That was the beginning of a distinguished public career. After about three years, he decided to step down because of various things that were happening in the country. He dealt with them in a level headed manner and left the University in a healthy and properly functioning state. As he put it at his farewell function: “I am leaving the University as healthy as I found it and I hope I have been able to accomplish something which will endure”. It has endured without question.
On his part, soon after a Visiting assignment in a US University, he joined the Union Public Service Commission and maintained the utmost level of rectitude and fairness. I never heard anyone complain about his being one-sided or partial. And that was the quintessence of this memorable man.
Soon after he finished his term in the UPSC, he got elected to the Rajya Sabha. It was a new area of work for him, but, once again, he rose to the occasion. He was always candid, upright and objective. Of more occasions than one, he said things which professional politicians would not have said. But he had no hesitation in saying these because he had, in a sense, strayed into politics.
Soon after his retirement from the Rajya Sabha, he was appointed the Governor of Kerala. A couple of years later, he was transferred to Gujarat. In both places, he was admired for his deep humanity and freedom from any kind of hypocrisy. He also officiated as Governor of Rajasthan and Maharashtra for some time. Here, again, he was a model of uprightness.
All this time after he retired from the University of Delhi, he remained preoccupied with his research. In two decades after his retirement and before ill-health made it difficult for him to work harder, he produced as many as three research monographs. Each one of them was a contribution in its own right. When those who are actually teaching do not produce as much as he did, the contrast is striking.
It was his human qualities and his deep roots in Haryana which endeared him to one and all. He was always at home in the company both of the uneducated villagers who came to see him as also the professional politicians with whom he had to interact. No one ever doubted his honesty of purpose and his integrity as a person.
In bidding farewell to a dear old friend, I feel nostalgic about some of those things which we shared with each other. One thing never ceased to amaze me about him. Whatever be the situation, he could always handle it with perfect tact, firmness as well as compassion. What more can a man wish to achieve!