Swaran Singh

Sardar Swaran Singh (19 August 1907 – 30 October 1994) was an Indian politician.

He was India's longest-serving union cabinet minister.

Swaran Singh Purewal was born on 19 August 1907 in Shankar (village) in Jalandhar district of Punjab.

He was born in Jat Sikh family.

He completed his intermediate (High school) at Randhir College in Kapurthala.

He then joined Government College, Lahore and completed a degree in Physics with honors.

He then worked as a lecturer in Physics in Lyallpur Khalsa College.

In 1930s he joined the Akali Dal political party and by the mid forties he was a prominent leader in the mid-1940s.

After leaving this job he studied law in Government law college in Lahore and received his L.L.B in 1932.

He started a law practice near his birth village in the nearby town of Jallandhar, specialising in criminal law.

He played an important role in the compromise between the Indian national congress party and the Akali Dal in the early 1940s.

Just before the 1946 elections, the Panthic Party was formed with Baldev Singh as the leader and Singh was elected its deputy leader.

In 1946 he was elected a member of the Punjab legislative assembly.

He then became parliamentary secretary to the Punjab Coalition government.

He was a member of the Punjab Partition Committee where he played an important role.

On 15 August 1947, the day of Indian Independence he was sworn in as Home Minister in the cabinet of the state of Punjab.

At the same time the capital of the Punjab was shifted from Shimla to Jalandhar.

On 13 May 1952 he resigned his position here when Jawaharlal Nehru included him in the central cabinet.

He entered the cabinet of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1952, and was that government's last surviving member.

He spent 23 years of his life as a high ranking Cabinet Minister in the Government of India.

He had a reputation for being an effective debater and negotiator.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1972.

To this date he is the longest-serving union cabinet minister in India.

Babu Jajgivan Ram holds the record for maximum duration as cabinet minister i.e. around 30 years, but the record for consistent and uninterrupted membership of the cabinet in continuation is held by Mr. Swaran Singh.

He is best known for his role as India's external affairs minister.

He assisted Jawaharlal Nehru in his talks with the Chinese leader Zhou Enlai, on the Indo-China border question in 1960.

He was in the Indian delegation during the six rounds of talks with Pakistan in 1962–63.

He visited the USSR in July 1966 along with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He was also president of the National Congress in 1969, and 1978.

"His debates at the UN Security Council on Bangladesh's cause, when East Pakistan liberation war (1971) was in full swing, were impressive," attests Former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, Narendra P Jain, "He proved to be more than just a match for his then Pakistani counterpart Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. During one of the council debates when Bhutto said that Sardar's hands are full of blood in conflict, Swarn Singh got up and showed his clean, spotless hands."

He was familiar with and was a proficient speaker of several languages.

On 9 August 1971, he signed "The Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation between the USSR and the Republic of India" which provided for closer contacts between the two countries in economic, political cultural and other fields.

The treaty was also a defense pact under with both countries were obliged to come to each other's assistance in the event go a conflict with a third country.

This treaty was binding for 20 years and was co signed by Andrei Gromyko

He led the Indian delegation to the UN general assembly in 1971 to explain India's position in the ongoing war with Pakistan.

George H. W. Bush, who at the time was the US Ambassador to the UN and led the US delegation at the UN security council demanded an unconditional cease fire by India to which Swaran Singh responded, "this one sided and partisan attitude of the distinguished representative of the United States has shocked and surprised us. The US is entitled to its own opinions and interpretations, so are we. But facts are facts and must be stated. Right from the beginning of this unfortunate situation that has arisen in the subcontinent, India had been asking for a political settlement acceptable to elected and acknowledged representatives of the people of Bangladesh."

On 16 December 1971, East Pakistan troops there surrendered to joint forces of Bangladesh and India, who had seized the capital city of Dacca (now Dhaka).

He remained a part of successive governments until he resigned in November 1975.

Sardar Swaran Singh was chairperson of the committee entrusted with the responsibility of studying the Constitution of India in 1976 during the national emergency.

Soon after the declaration of the national emergency, Indira Gandhi constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Sardar Swaran Singh to study the question of amending the constitution in the light of past experiences.