New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader and former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh passed away at a hospital in Gurgaon on Saturday after being hospitalised for two weeks. He was 93.
He is survived by his wife Heminder Kumari Singh and son Jagat Singh. Last rites will be at Lodi Road Crematorium today.
Singh, a diplomat before joining politics, had served as the External Affairs Minister from 2004-05 as part of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet. He had also held multiple Ministries earlier, serving as the Union Minister of State for Steel, Mines and Coal and Agriculture from 1985-86 in the Rajiv Gandhi Government and the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 1986-89.
However, in 2006, he had to resign from the post after the oil-for-food scam came out in the open. During investigation, it was found that people close to him, including his son, had made gains from payments. Singh, however, always maintained that he had personally never made any gains. The UN’s Volcker Committee had named Singh and the Congress party as beneficiaries of illegal payments in the oil scam. In February 2008, he resigned from the Congress party, ending his nearly 25-year-long association.
After joining the IFS, Singh served as India’s Deputy High Commissioner to the UK (1973-77) and then became India’s High Commissioner to Zambia in 1977. He also served as India’s Ambassador to Pakistan from 1980-82.
He was also awarded Padma Bhushan after he served as the head of the Preparatory Committee of the Non-Alignment Summit in New Delhi in 1983.
Singh, however, moved away from politics in 1991 after P.V. Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister. He then went onto become one of the Founders of All India Indira Congress.
This post was published on August 12, 2024 7:32 pm