Jaswant Singh, a former Union minister in Atal Bihar Vajpayee’s cabinet who held crucial foreign affairs, defense and finance portfolios, died of a prolonged illness on Sunday morning.
Having joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as one of its first founding members after serving in the Indian Army, Singh had a bitter dispute with his party in 2014 when he was denied a Lok Sabha ticket of his choice of Barmer in Rajasthan. He disputed the general elections of 2014, which were the last as an independent, but lost.
Singh, considered close to Vajpayee and veteran BJP leader LK Advani, was twice expelled from the party; in 2009, the BJP parliamentary board expelled him after the publication of his book Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence. He rejoined the party after 10 months, but faced a second expulsion in 2014 when he defied party orders and challenged the BJP’s decision not to feature him as a Barmer contestant.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned his death on Sunday, tweeting that Singh served the nation diligently, first as a soldier and then during his long association with politics. “… During the Atal Ji government, he handled crucial portfolios and left a strong mark on the world of finance, defense and foreign affairs. Saddened by his disappearance, ”wrote the prime minister. In separate tweets, he also said that, true to his nature, Jaswant Singh has fought his illness with immense courage for the past six years.
Jaswant Singh Ji will be remembered for his unique perspective on politics and society. It also contributed to the strengthening of the BJP. I will always remember our interactions. Condolences to his family and followers. Om Shanti, ”Prime Minister Modi said on Twitter.
Singh, a four-time member of the Lok Sabha and five-time elected to the Rajya Sabha, was the foreign minister during the Kandahar kidnapping case and had escorted Mulana Masood Azhar and two other terrorists instead of freeing the hostages. aboard Indian Airlines IC-814 which was hijacked on December 24, 1999.
After India carried out the nuclear tests in 1998 and the United States imposed sanctions on India, Singh was the lead negotiator for the talks with then-US Under Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. The two-year negotiations paved the way for then-US President Bill Clinton’s visit, seen as a turning point in US-India relations.
Singh had been ill after a fall at his home in August 2014 and was admitted to the Army Research and Reference Hospital in the national capital. He had been in and out of the hospital and was readmitted in June of this year. At 82 he died of cardiac arrest on Sunday morning.
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