Kunwar Natwar Singh
From Jatland Wiki
Kunwar Natwar Singh, popularly known as K. Natwar Singh was born on May 16, 1931, at Jaghina village in Bharatpur, Rajastan, India. His Gotra is Bhagaur. Maharaja Bachchu Singh was the relative of Patiala royal family and Mr. Natwar Singh is also the relative of Patiala family. Mr. Natwar Singh's father served the Royal Army of Bharatpur Province.
He was for a while a minister without portfolio after having been removed from his post as Minister in charge of External Affairs on November 7, 2005 under a cloud of scandal. Named by U.N. Volcker committee as a beneficiary of illegal payoffs in Iraqi oil scam, was forced to resign from the Cabinet on Dec 6, 2005.
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Education
Singh is an arts graduate from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Delhi. He also studied at Cambridge University (Corpus Christi) in England and at Peking University in China.
Joined Indian Foreign Service
Singh joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1953 and served for 31 years. One of his earliest assignments was in Beijing, China (1956-58) He was then posted to New York with the Permanent Mission of India, (1961-66) and as India's representative to Executive Board of UNICEF, (1962-66). He served on several important UN committees between 1963 and 1966. In 1966, he was posted to the Prime Minister's Secretariat under Mrs Indira Gandhi. He was part of the Indian delegation to the Heads of Commonwealth Meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, 1975. He was an Indian Delegate to the 30th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, Heads of Commonwealth Meeting, Lusaka, Zambia in 1979 and the 35th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York. He accompanied Ms. Indira Gandhi on her State visit to the USA in 1982. He served as Executive Trustee, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (U.N.I.T.A.R.) appointed by the Secretary-General, United Nations for six years (1981-86) He also served on the Expert Group appointed by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, London in 1982 He was appointed Secretary-General of the Seventh Non-aligned summit in New Delhi held in 1983 and Chief Coordinator of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in New Delhi in the same year. He served as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs from March 1982 to November 1984.
As politician
In 1984 he joined the Congress Party and was elected to the eighth Lok Sabha from Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan. In 1985 he became a minister of state in Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's council of ministers with the portfolios of steel, coal and mines, and agriculture. In 1986, he became minister of state for external affairs i.e. in charge of foreign relations and stayed in this post till 1989, when the government was defeated in the general elections. He was also elected President of the UN Conference on Disarmament and Development held in New York in 1987. He led the Indian delegation to the 42nd Session of the UN General Assembly.
In the 1989 general elections, he contested and lost the Mathura seat. He was back in the twelfth Lok Sabha again in 1998 once again from Bharatpur, but this time in opposition. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in 2002 and when the Congress came back to power, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed him to the cabinet as Minister for External affairs on May 23.
Visited Pakistan
He visited Pakistan for the first time after becoming India's external affairs minister in July 2004 and held bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart and took the peace process forward.
In United States of America
Again in June 2004, he made his first trip to the U.S. after becoming India's foreign minister and met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Even though the two discussed India's stand on Iraq, the prime reason Singh was in the U.S. was to represent India at the state funeral of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
In April 2005, he became the first Indian foreign minister to meet the United States President in the Oval Office of the White House. On September 23, 2005 he made his first and only public appearance, appearing at Brown University.
Books Published
- E.M.Forster : A Tribute, New York, 1964
- The Legacy of Nehru, New York, 1965
- Tales from Modern India, New York, 1966
- Stories from India, London, 1971
- Maharaja Suraj Mal (1707-63), London, 1981
- Curtain Raisers, Delhi,1984
- Profiles & Letters, Delhi, 1997
- The Magnificent Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (1891-1938), Delhi, 1997
- Heart to Heart, Delhi, 2003.
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