Former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh Passes Away at 93

After a protracted illness, veteran Congressman and former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh passed away on Saturday night, according to family members who spoke to a news media. His age was ninety-three.

After a few weeks of therapy at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, close to Delhi, he passed away there.

K. Natwar Singh, who was born in the Bharatpur area of Rajasthan in 1931, worked as a diplomat before entering politics.

He had been in Manmohan Singh’s ministry from 2004 to 2005 as the minister of external affairs. In the government of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he also held the position of Union Minister of State for Steel, Mines, Coal, and Agriculture from 1985 to 1986. Following that, he worked for the Rajiv Gandhi administration once again as Minister of State in the External Affairs Ministry from 1986 to 1989. Having been elected from Bharatpur in the 1984 elections, it was his first term as an MP. He left the Indian Foreign Service at this time to pursue a career in politics.

Singh began a long diplomatic career in 1953, at the age of 22, when he enlisted in the Indian Foreign Service. From 1973 to 1977, he was India’s Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In 1977, he became High Commissioner for Zambia. When he was named India’s ambassador to Pakistan in 1980–1982, a particularly pivotal year in Indo-Pakistani relations, his career took off even further.

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Singh has a similarly strong academic background. He continued his education at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom after studying history at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. His academic interests also led him to study at Peking University in China, demonstrating his profound interest in worldviews.

The highest civilian honor in India, the Padma Vibhushan, was also given to him.

The Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Bhajanlal Sharma,  sent his sympathies to the deceased former Union minister.

Sharma took to his social media handle on X and stated, “The news of the demise of former External Affairs Minister of the Government of India, Padma Vibhushan awardee Ms. Natwar Singh is extremely sad. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to give a place to the departed soul in his feet and provide strength to the bereaved family in this hour of grief.”

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