Jaswant Singh

For the Indian Army commander, see Joginder Jaswant Singh.

For the Indian author, see Lt Col Jaswant Singh Marwah.

Jaswant Singh
MP
In office 2009 – Incumbent
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Dawa Narbula
Constituency	Darjeeling
Minister of Finance of India
In office 2002–2004
Prime Minister	Atal Behari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Yashwant Sinha
Succeeded by	P Chidambaram
Minister of Defence of India
In office 2000–2001
Prime Minister	Atal Behari Vajpayee
Preceded by	George Fernandes
Succeeded by	George Fernandes
Indian Minister for External Affairs
In office 1998–2004
Prime Minister	Atal Behari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Atal Behari Vajpayee
Succeeded by	Yashwant Sinha
Finance Minister of India
In office 1996–1996
Prime Minister	Atal Behari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Manmohan Singh
Succeeded by	P Chidambaram
Personal details
Born	January 3, 1938 (1938-01-03) Rajputana, British India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Alma mater	Mayo College Indian Military Academy
Religion	Hinduism
Website	http://www.jaswantsingh.com

Jaswant Singh (born January 3, 1938) is an Indian politician and Member of Parliament from Darjeeling parliamentary constituency. He is a Rajput from Jodhpur in the Indian State of Rajasthan and was an officer in the Indian Army in the 1960s and is an alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defence Academy (India), Khadakwasla. He served as Finance minister in the short-lived government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which lasted just from May 16, 1996, to June 1, 1996. After Vajpayee became Prime Minister again two years later, he became Minister for External Affairs of India, serving from December 5, 1998 until July 1, 2002. Responsible for foreign policy, he dealt with high tensions between India and Pakistan. In July 2002 he became Finance Minister again, switching posts with Yashwant Sinha. He served as Finance Minister until the defeat of the Vajpayee government in May 2004 and was instrumental in defining and pushing through the market-friendly reforms of the government. Known for his moderate political views, he is a self-described liberal democrat even though the Bharatiya Janata Party is often described as a right-wing nationalist organization. He was conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 2001. On 19 August 2009, he was expelled from BJP after criticism over his remarks in his book which allegedly praised the founder of Pakistan in his book Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence.

Career

Jaswant Singh (left) with Donald Rumsfeld

With Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

He is one of the few Indian politicians to have been the Minister for Defence, Finance and External Affairs.

He started the new government of Vajpayee, which lasted its full term, as the External Affairs Minister and later on switched his ministry to Finance with Yashwant Sinha. He was also the Defence Minister when George Fernandes was forced to resign after the Tehelka exposure.

Mr. 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 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.

Jaswant Singh is also the most influential person in the BJP not from a RSS background.

Jaswant Singh has been criticized by Political parties frequently for escorting terrorist to Kandhar, Afghanistan who were released by Government of India in exchange of passengers from the hijacked Indian Airlines plane. However, an all party meeti. A controversy erupted immediately after the release of the book, in which Singh insinuated that a mole had existed in the Prime Ministerial Office during the tenure of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, who had leaked information to American sources. Soon after, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged him to name the mole. In response, Singh sent a letter to him. The letter, Singh said later, had no signature, and no name of any mole. Jaswant Singh then backed off, saying his views on the subject were based on a "hunch".

Controversy hovered around him again when on 17 August 2009 another book of his titled Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence was released in which he claimed Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's centralised polity was responsible for partition. He was later expelled from the primary membership of BJP as a result of the ensuing controversy. In interviews with media he quoted BJP as narrow-minded and to have limited thought. His book was later banned in Gujarat. Singh said of the ban "The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking". He has since been readmitted to BJP in 2010.

See also

• List of Rajputs

Preceded by Manmohan Singh	Minister of Finance of India 1996–1996	Succeeded by P. Chidambaram
Preceded by Yashwant Sinha	Minister of Finance of India 2002–2004	Succeeded by P. Chidambaram
Preceded by Atal Behari Vajpayee	Minister for External Affairs of India 1998–2002	Succeeded by Yashwant Sinha
Preceded by George Fernandes	Minister for Defence of India 2000–2001	Succeeded by George Fernandes

External links

• Jaswant Singh -Political Profile
• Jaswant returns to BJP
• "Jaswant Singh's Website"
• Jinna
• Nehru not Jinnah’s polity led to partition
• Personal Website
• Modi govt bans book, says it’s a bid to tarnish Sardar image
• Book ban: timing calculated, says Congress
• "In Service of Emergent India"
• "Jinnah book sales soar after author Jaswant's expulsion"
• "Against Nuclear Apartheid"
• "Jaswant Singh Darjeeling LS Candidate"
• Financialexpress.com
• Video: Jaswant Singh discusses his book 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence' at the Asia Society, New York, Mar. 25, 2010
• Jaswant Singh's monthly syndicated commentary series, "The New Power Game", from Project Syndicate