The Artful Diplomat

JASWANT SINGH 1938­ - 2020

- Yashwant Sinha

I was greatly saddened to hear of the demise of Jaswant Singh. He was a valued colleague, both in government and the party to which we both belonged and of which he was a founding member. A thorough gentleman and an upright army officer, Jaswant Singh was also an astute diplomat and a superb administrator. He was a great parliamentarian who acquitted himself with great distinction.

When I joined public life, he was already in politics, but we were in two different parties. Our names were phonetically similar, which often created confusion and comic situations. In fact, on the day of his demise, a journalist from a news channel called me and said that “Jaswant Sinha” had expired and wanted me to record a message of condolence. There were others who thought I had passed away. I remember, once Ramakrishna Hegde, who was Karnataka chief minister at the time, convened a meeting of leaders from opposition parties and I also received a message to attend the meeting, though we both belonged to the Janata Party. I reached Karnataka Bhawan, only to realise that there had been a mix-up when Hegde, very politely, enquired about Jaswant Singh.