24 Facts About Natwar Singh

Kunwar Natwar Singh, IFS was an Indian diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005.

Natwar Singh won the election and served as a union minister of state until 1989.

Natwar Singh subsequently studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University and was a visiting scholar for a period at Peking University in China.

Natwar Singh joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1953 and served for 31 years.

Natwar Singh was then posted to New York City at the Permanent Mission of India and as India's representative to executive board of UNICEF.

Natwar Singh served on several UN committees between 1963 and 1966.

Natwar Singh served as India's Ambassador to Poland from 1971 to 1973, India's Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1973 to 1977 and India's Ambassador to Pakistan from 1980 to 1982.

Natwar Singh was part of the Indian delegation to the Heads of Commonwealth Meeting in Kingston, Jamaica in 1975.

Natwar Singh 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.

Natwar Singh accompanied Indira Gandhi on her State visit to the US in 1982.

Natwar Singh served as an Executive Trustee, United Nations Institute for Training and Research appointed by the Secretary-General, United Nations for six years.

Natwar Singh served on the Expert Group appointed by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, London in 1982.

Natwar Singh 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 in New Delhi in the same year.

Natwar Singh served as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs from March 1982 to November 1984.

Natwar Singh received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India from the Government of India, in 1984.

In 1984, after resigning from the Indian Foreign Service, Natwar Singh joined the Indian National Congress party and was elected to the 8th Lok Sabha from Bharatpur constituency in Rajasthan.

Natwar Singh remained a minister of state for external affairs until the Congress party lost power after being defeated in the general elections of 1989.

Natwar Singh was rewarded with a ticket to contest the general elections of 1998, and returned to parliament after a gap of nine years, when he was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha from Bharatpur.

Natwar Singh had to sit in the opposition benches and then he lost the elections of 1999.

Natwar Singh assumed office on 23 May 2004 as India's minister of external affairs.

On 27 October 2005, while Natwar Singh was abroad on an official visit, the Independent Inquiry Committee headed by Paul Volcker released the report on its investigation of corruption in the Oil-for-Food Programme.

In February 2008, Natwar Singh announced that he had quit the Congress at a BJP-sponsored rally of the Jat community held at Jaipur in the presence of Vasundhara Raje, then Chief Minister of Rajasthan.

Natwar Singh died in Gurugram on 10 August 2024, at the age of 95.

Natwar Singh even expressed the intention to write her own autobiography to reveal the truth.