Jaswant Singh

Trivia

• In July 2006, Singh released a book titled A Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India.[2] A controversy erupted immediately after the release of the book, in which Singh insinuated that a mole had existed in the Prime Ministerial Office during the tenure of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, who had leaked information to American sources. Soon after, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged him to name the mole. In response, Singh sent a letter to him. The letter, Singh said later, h
• His candidature was the outcome of long political discussion between BJP and Gorkha Janamukti Morcha(GJM), an outfit demanding separate statehood for Hilly and Foothills of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the name of Gorkhaland.
• In 2009 general election, he won as a candidate of BJP from Darjeeling parliamentary constituency under the state of west Bengal. He replaced the already declared candidate of BJP Mr. Dawa Sherpa, an ex IPS officer.
• Jaswant Singh has been criticized by Political parties frequently for escorting terrorist to Kandhar, Afghanistan who were released by Government of India in exchange of passengers from the hijacked Indian Airlines plane.
• Jaswant Singh is also the most influential person in the BJP not from a RSS background.
• His skill as a negotiator and diplomat during talks with the United States has been well acknowledged by his U.S. counterpart Strobe Talbott.
• Mr. Singh is widely regarded for his handling of relations with the United States which were strained after the 1998 Indian nuclear tests but which ameliorated soon after culminating in the visit of U.S. President Clinton to India.
• He was also the Defence Minister when George Fernandes was forced to resign after the Tehelka exposure.
• He is one of the few Indian politicians to have been the Minister for Defence, Finance and External Affairs.
• On 19 August 2009, he was expelled from BJP after criticism over his remarks in his book Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence.

Quotes

• “They're always closed on Mondays.”
• “The new collection is expected to contribute about 15 per cent of company's growth in the country.”
• “I do not think it is ever too late to start.”
• “Neither the Prime Minister nor the Attorney-General had any role in this matter. It is the CEC alone who has the sole Constitutional jurisdiction to recommend any action (against an Election Commissioner) to the President.”
• “The only yardstick of objectively assessing, evaluating and commenting on (the deal) is India's national interest. Based on this, it is our view that the government has surrendered on two important counts.”
• “We have asked the government to come clean and explain its stand. Under the circumstances, there is no way the government cannot but come forward and explain its stand. It's the government's national duty to explain.”
• “The sentiment that they (the two governments) seem to be bogged down is because of the distance that separates them in their respective positions and they require reconciling these. It naturally takes time. However, that should not generate impatience.”
• “This is the first incident of its kind in Bangalore despite the fact that the state and central governments had been forewarned of an impending attack in the city.”
• “We hope that such actions against terrorist activities targeting India, including Jammu and Kashmir, would be pursued vigorously until cross-border terrorism in our country is completely eliminated.”
• "We have given the hijackers 10 hours to leave for wherever they want to go."