Jaswant Singh

Jaswant Singh (born 3 January 1938) is a retired officer of the Indian Army and a former cabinet minister. He is a founding member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is one of India's longest serving parliamentarians, having been a member of one or the other house almost continuously between 1980 and 2014. He was elected on a BJP ticket to the Rajya Sabha five times (1980, 1986, 1998, 1999, 2004) and to the Lok Sabha four times (1990, 1991, 1996, 2009). During the Vajpayee administration (1998-2004), he held some of the highest offices of the land, handling at various times the cabinet portfolios of Finance, External Affairs and Defence. He also served for a period as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (1998–99). In the aftermath of India's nuclear tests of 1998, he was deputed by Prime Minister Vajpayee to act as India's single representative to hold repeated, long-term dialogue with the USA (represented by Strobe Talbott) on matters related to nuclear policy and strategy; the outcome of the sustained engagement was positive for both countries. After his party lost power in 2004, Jaswant Singh served as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 2004 to 2009. Jaswant Singh incurred the displeasure of his party colleagues when, after the party suffered its second successive defeat in 2009, he circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle. Only weeks later, a book authored by him was released, in which he was found to have written sympathetically about Jinnah. Singh remained unrepentant through the brouhaha that followed, but found himself marginalized thereafter within the party and left to his own devices, to tend to his parliamentary constituency of Darjeeling in West Bengal. Come the elections of 2014, his party decided not to field him from any constituency. He decided to contest anyway as an independent from his native constituency of Barmer in Rajasthan. This meant that he would face off against the candidate put up by his party, and after he refused to withdraw, he was expelled from the BJP on 29 March 2014. He lost the election to the candidate put up by his former party. Only a few weeks later, on 7 August 2014, Jaswant Singh suffered a fall in the bathroom of residence and suffered a serious head injury. He was admitted to Army's Research and Referral hospital in Delhi for treatment. He has been in a state of coma ever since.

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