Jaswant Singh

Major Jaswant Singh (3 January 193827 September 2020) was an officer of the Indian Army and an Indian Cabinet Minister.

Singh was born on 3 January 1938 in the village of Jasol in Rajputana Agency of British India (now Balotra district) of Rajasthan, India in a Rajput family.

His father was Sardar Singh Rathore of Jasol and mother was Kunwar Baisa.

Singh was married to Sheetal Kanwar.

They had two sons.

His elder son, Manvendra Singh, is a former Member of Parliament from Barmer.

After his education from the National Defence Academy, he was enrolled in the Indian Army in the year 1957 and was designated to the position of the Captain of the Central India Horse unit of allegiance.

He was an officer in the Indian Army in the 1960s and was an alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla.

He was a member and associate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from the 1960s.

In the government of Vajpayee, Singh was External Affairs Minister, and later went on to become the Finance Minister.

He was also the Defence Minister when George Fernandes was forced to resign after the Tehelka exposure.

Singh entered politics in the 1960s, with the first few years of his political life seeing limited recognition, until he was initiated in the Jan Sangh.

And he was also a participant of Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and was the commander of his unit and was the Major at the time of Sino-Indian border dispute of the year 1965 after which he retired from the Indian Army in the next year, 1966 to join politics after serving the Armed forces for 10 years.

He was a close accompany of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and made his links with Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

He was one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and was one of India's longest serving parliamentarians, having been a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha almost continuously between 1980 and 2014.

He was elected on a BJP ticket to the Rajya Sabha five times (1980, 1986, 1998, 1999, 2004) and to the Lok Sabha four times (1990, 1991, 1996, 2009).

He tasted success in his political career in 1980 when he was first selected for the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament.

He served as Finance minister in the short-lived government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which lasted just from 16 May 1996, to 1 June 1996.

During the Vajpayee administration between 1998 and 2004, he held multiple cabinet portfolios including Finance, External Affairs and Defence.

He also served as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission between 1998 and 1999.

In the aftermath of India's nuclear tests of 1998, he was deputed by Prime Minister Vajpayee to act as India's representative to hold repeated, long-term dialogue with the United States (represented by Strobe Talbott) on matters related to nuclear policy and strategy; the outcome of the sustained engagement was positive for both countries.

Singh is widely regarded for his handling of relations with the United States which were strained after the 1998 Indian nuclear tests but which ameliorated soon after culminating in the 2000 visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton to India.

His skill as a negotiator and diplomat during talks with the United States has been well acknowledged by his U.S. counterpart Strobe Talbott.

Singh has been frequently criticised by political parties for escorting terrorists to Kandhahar, Afghanistan.

They were released by the Government of India in exchange for passengers from the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814.

After his party lost power in 2004, Jaswant Singh served as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 2004 to 2009.

Singh incurred the displeasure of his party colleagues when, after the party suffered its second successive defeat in 2009, he circulated a note demanding a thorough discussion on the debacle.

Weeks later, a book authored by him was released, in which he was found to have written sympathetically about Jinnah.

Post the event, Singh found himself marginalised within the party.

He was NDA's Vice-presidential candidate in the 2012 Indian vice-presidential election.

Singh was the only leader from Rajasthan who had the distinction of becoming the Minister Of External Affairs, Finance and Defense.

In the elections of 2014, his party decided not to field him from any constituency.

He decided to contest anyway as an independent from his native constituency of Barmer (against Col. Sonaram Chaudhary) in Rajasthan.

He was expelled from the BJP on 29 March 2014 when he did not withdraw his independent candidature, and went on to lose the election.

On 7 August 2014, Jaswant Singh suffered a fall in the bathroom of residence and suffered a serious head injury.

Singh was denied a Member of Parliament ticket for Barmer by BJP for the 2014 Indian general election over Col. Sonaram Choudhary.

Unhappy, Singh filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Barmer constituency.

Subsequently, he was expelled from BJP for six years and lost the election.

In June 2020 he was admitted to Army's Research and Referral hospital in Delhi for treatment.

He remained in a state of coma for six years till his death in 2020.