Updated: September 28, 2020 6:56:40 am
Jaswant Singh died after a cardiac arrest at the Army Hospital. (Express photo by Amit Mehra / Archive)
Jaswant Singh, 82, was always something of a misfit in the BJP, a party he helped found in 1980 and skillfully represented as a MP and minister nine times with key portfolios in the Vajpayee years between 1998 and 2004.
But the former army commander with his liberalism, polite old-world military manners, interest in books and scholarship, and outspoken frankness, was often out of sync with many in his party, which is why he was twice expelled from the military. BJP.
At the time of his death, Singh was no longer in the party, but tributes paid to him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who were partly responsible for his removal in 2014, indicated that despite differences, top BJP officials The leadership appreciated their valuable contributions to the party.
Singh’s biggest supporter in the BJP was Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who recognized his worth. During Vajpayee’s two terms as prime minister, Singh was assigned significant responsibilities that included holding, at different times, the top three portfolios of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense.
But even Vajpayee couldn’t always protect Singh. When Vajpayee was sworn in in 1999, Singh was included on the Cabinet’s original list as Minister of Finance. But in a midnight coup, then-RSS head KS Sudarshan ensured that his name was withheld, allegedly at the behest of a leading industrialist who was suspicious of Singh’s long friendship with businessman Nusli Wadia.
Within a few months, however, Singh was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He displayed his obvious flair for diplomacy to help repair bridges with the United States, which had imposed sanctions on India in the wake of nuclear tests. Singh participated in regular conversations with Strobe Talbott, the US undersecretary of state. They met 14 times in 10 different locations, with Talbott admitting that Singh hit him with no problems in diplomatic maneuvers.
Soon, US President Bill Clinton agreed to visit India, ending the recession of relations between the two countries. Talbott felt that India could not give in to the United States as much as Singh wanted, because it was isolated in the cabinet and lost to Brajesh Mishra and LK Advani.
Despite Kargil, Singh, in a point of view that differed from the majority in government other than the Prime Minister, fervently believed in the importance of continued dialogue with Pakistan. Even after General Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Agra for peace talks ended in fiasco, Singh was undaunted, insisting that although the road might be long, the destination would eventually be reached.
The lowest point in Singh’s tenure as foreign minister was the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 with 175 passengers to Kandahar, Afghanistan, by Pakistani-backed terrorists. The Vajpayee government agreed to the kidnappers’ demands and Singh personally escorted Masood Azhar, who would later be the mastermind of several terrorist attacks against India, and two others who were released from Indian jails, to Afghanistan. In exchange, the kidnapped passengers were returned unharmed.
If Singh was eventually transferred from Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Finance in 2002, it was partly due to mounting tensions between him and Vajpayee’s chief secretary, Brajesh Mishra, a former IFS official. As Finance Minister, Singh helped implement market-friendly reforms. He also took over as defense minister when George Fernandes had to resign temporarily over Tehelka’s accusations.
From 2004 to 2009, Singh was the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, serving as a prominent parliamentarian both in debates and as the leader of various parliamentary committees, including the Public Accounts Committee.
After the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when Congress returned to power and the BJP under LK Advani was again defeated, Singh, along with Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, was outspoken enough to call for introspection from the leadership. of the party. In the hierarchical structure of the party, this was not well received and it soon became persona non grata. Especially since a few months later he released his book, Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence. None of his party colleagues attended the statement because they had an idea of what was coming. In the book, Singh blamed Nehru and Patel for the partition, for accepting the “fallacious notion that Muslims are a separate nation and allowing the nation to be dissected.” On the contrary, he praised Jinnah. Not in vain, he was expelled from the party.
Nitin Gadkari as party chairman reinstated Singh, who had won the Darjeeling Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal in two consecutive elections with the help of Gorkha separatists. But his return was short-lived.
Before the 2014 elections, Singh was once again on a collision course with the BJP. He had quarreled with Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, although ironically he had been very close to the Scindia family for years, and it was his brother-in-law Sardar Angre who persuaded Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia to join the BJP. Vasundhara refused to allow Singh to stay in the Barmer constituency, where his hometown of Jasol is located. Singh, 76, defiantly announced that he would compete as an independent anyway.
The party’s top brass, now led by Narendra Modi, expelled him once more. And Vasundhara made it his mission to ensure their defeat, calling on BJP leaders everywhere to campaign against Singh. She turned against a congressional rebel, Colonel Sonaram Chowdhary. Singh responded to the new administration in the Modi-led party, noting that his attitude reminded him of 1975: arrogant and uninterested in accepting everyone. His son Manvendra Singh eventually joined Congress.
Shortly after his defeat, Singh slipped and fell in the bathroom of his government bungalow in Teen Murti Marg, and suffered a major concussion. He was rushed to the Army hospital, where he remained in a coma until Sunday morning, when he died after multiple organ failure.
Singh was born into a leading Rathore clan in Jasol, Barmer, which was related to the many ancient royal families of Rajasthan. He entered the Army and was one of the first graduates of the National Defense Academy. He participated in the 1962 and 1965 wars against China and Pakistan, but left the army in 1966. He worked for a time as a private secretary to the former Maharaja of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh, and later joined the Swantantra Party.
He was bitterly against Congress, which he saw as the party that had deprived the former princes of their legitimate rights by taking away their private wallets. At heart, he was always a bit unrealistic, and North Block officials recall that the only Prime Minister he courteously escorted to his car as Finance Minister was Amarinder Singh, out of respect for his royal title.
During the Emergency, he reached out to Jana Sangh leaders such as Vajpayee and Advani. In 1980, he joined the nascent Bharatiya Janata Party and was later sent to Rajya Sabha. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha for five terms and won four elections to Lok Sabha. His erudition and varied interests are reflected in the fact that he also had time to write more than half a dozen books.
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