Natwar Singh

K. Natwar Singh
Singh in 2005
Minister of External Affairs
In office
22 May 2004 – 6 December 2005
Prime MinisterManmohan Singh
Preceded byYashwant Sinha
Succeeded byManmohan Singh
Minister without portfolio
In office
8 December 2005 – 22 May 2009
Prime MinisterManmohan Singh
Preceded byMamata Banerjee
Succeeded byArun Jaitley
Personal details
Born(1929-05-16)16 May 1929
Jaghina, Bharatpur State, British India (present-day Rajasthan, India)
Died10 August 2024(2024-08-10) (aged 95)
Gurugram, Haryana, India
Political partyIndian National Congress (1984–2006)
Bahujan Samaj Party (2008)[1]
SpouseHeminder Kaur
Children2
ResidenceNew Delhi
Alma materMayo College, Ajmer
St. Stephen's College, Delhi
Scindia School
OccupationPolitician
AwardsPadma Bhushan

Kunwar Natwar Singh, IFS (16 May 1929 – 10 August 2024) was an Indian diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005. Having been suspended by the Congress in 2006,[2] he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2008 but was removed from the party within four months.[3][1]

Singh was selected into the Indian Foreign Service in 1953. In 1984, he resigned from the service to contest elections as a member of the Indian National Congress party. He won the election and served as a union minister of state until 1989. Thereafter, he had a patchy political career until being made India's foreign minister in 2004. However, 18 months later, he had to resign after the United Nations' (UN) Volcker committee named both he and the Congress party to which he belonged as beneficiaries of illegal pay-offs in the scandal related to the UN's Oil-for-Food Programme.[4]

In 2014, he wrote his autobiography One Life is Not Enough. This book was criticised for its attempt to create sensation, while the Congress criticised Natwar Singh for distortion of facts due to his removal from the political position.[5][6]

  1. ^ a b India, Press Trust of (10 August 2008). "Natwar Singh joins BSP". India Today. Archived from the original on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Natwar Singh quits Congress party". Hindustan Times. 13 February 2008. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  3. ^ "BSP expels former external affairs minister Natwar Singh". The Times of India. 18 November 2008. Archived from the original on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Volcker Report names Natwar Singh and Congress Party as "beneficiaries"". The Hindu. 29 October 2005. Archived from the original on 31 October 2005.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference d772 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference f224 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).