New Delhi: Former Union Minister Jaswant Singh, who had been a close associate of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, passed away at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi on September 27.
Singh had been in a coma since August 2014 after a fall at home that resulted in head injuries. In addition to being a senior minister in both Vajpayee governments, he was also one of India’s longest-serving MPs and was a member from 1980 to 2014.
A member of Jan Sangh, he was also one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which, just days before his fall at home, had expelled him for refusing to accept the party’s decision to deny him a Lok Sabha ticket from Barmer.
The first time he was expelled from the party was in 2009. It was for a short time and was prompted by an alleged comment from him, praising Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in his book, Jinnah, India, Partition, Independence.
Below is the chronology of his life and times.
January 1938 – Jaswant Singh was born in a village of Jasol in the Barmer district of Rajasthan. His older brother, Manvendra Singh, was a former Barmer MP.
1957 Singh, an alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defense Akademy in Khadkwasla, joins the Central India Horse, the cavalry regiment of the Indian Army at the age of 19. He would serve in the military until 1965 and then joined politics. He became part of Jan Sangh, who later became the BJP.
1980 – Singh is nominated by the BJP for the Rajya Sabha. He would be a member of the upper house five times and of the lower house four times, until 2014. He would be a deputy for nine terms.
May 1996 – Seen up close to Vajpayee, he is appointed finance minister in Vajpayee’s cabinet for a short time.
May 1998 – Manages the Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense portfolios during the second Vajpayee regime. As India’s foreign minister between December 1998 and July 2002, he is credited with having improved relations with the United States after India attracted sanctions due to nuclear tests carried out in 1998. In 1998, too He briefly served as Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission in addition to chairing several parliamentary committees.
December 1999 – As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Singh leads the negotiations during the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-184 bound for Kathmandu. Its passengers are hostages of terrorists in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The kidnappers demand that the Indian government release the three main Pakistani terrorists, including Azhar Masood, who was in an Indian jail after being arrested in 1994 in Srinagar. Singh accompanies Masood on a flight to Kandahar to free him, for which he and Ajit Doval, the current National Security Advisor, face criticism. Some call the Kandahar episode a diplomatic failure.
March 2001 – Singh becomes the incumbent of a key BJP ally, George Fernandes, after he resigns as Defense Minister in response to sensational defense scandal story revealed by Tehelka magazine.
In this file photo, dated July 22, 2002, former Union Minister Jaswant Singh is seen with Congress Speaker Sonia Gandhi and the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at the Parliament House in New Delhi. Photo: PTI
July 2002 – Singh resigns from foreign affairs to become Vajpayee’s cabinet finance minister for two years. He exchanges positions with Yaswant Sinha, who until then was Minister of Finance.
May 2004 – After BJP loses power to UPA, Singh becomes opposition leader in Rajya Sabha, until 2009.
August 2009 – Singh is expelled from the BJP after party members accused him of praising Jinnah in his book. Jinnah: India, partition, independence. He returns to BJP in 2010 and represents the party at the Lok Sabha in Darjeeling.
August 2012 – Singh is nominated as a NDA candidate for the position of vice president. However, he loses to Hamid Ansari, the UPA candidate.
March 2014 – Singh’s control and popularity in the party, like several of the old guards, begins to decline. The BJP denies him a party ticket to contest the 2014 general elections. He turns rebellious and runs as independent from Barmer. BJP again expels him from the party. He loses the elections to the BJP candidate, Colonel Sonaram Choudhary.
August 7, 2014 – Days after losing the election, he falls in his bathroom and suffers serious head injuries. He is rushed to the R and R Hospital in Delhi.
September 27, 2020 – In the hospital since 2014, he breathes his last.
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