Jaswant Singh

Speaker Jaswant Singh thumbnail

Indian politician and MP

Indian politician and eight-term Member of Parliament, Jaswant Singh has headed six core Ministries of the Government of India. He served as Finance Minister in the short-lived government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which lasted just from May 1996 to June 1996. After Vajpayee became Prime Minister again two years later, he became Minister for External Affairs of India, serving from December 1998 until July 2002. Responsible for foreign policy, he dealt with high tensions between India and Pakistan.

In July 2002 he became Finance Minister again, switching posts with Yashwant Sinha. He served as Finance Minister until the defeat of the Vajpayee government in May 2004 and was instrumental in defining and pushing through the market-friendly reforms of the government. He was conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the year 2001, and is the author of eighteen books, the most recent being Jinnah – India, Partition, Independence (2009). After criticism over remarks made in this book he was expelled from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in August 2009.

Singh is also a Senior Fellow at Harvard, and a visiting Professor at Oxford and Warwick universities. He has contributed widely to Indian and foreign magazines, newspapers and journals on international affairs, and security and development issues.

Previous IQ² events featuring Jaswant Singh

Other talks, lectures and conversations featuring Jaswant Singh

Season tickets

Season tickets are £100 each and include one ticket and a glass of wine for all five debates in our autumn 2010 series

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Middle East debate

Buy tickets for 'The Middle East peace process is a charade' on September 21, featuring Edward Luttwak and Martin Indyk

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What's new on IQ²

See all of the latest IQ² content on one page, including written debates, live debates, and talks from our partners

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Pervez Musharraf

Former president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf will talk to Sir Christopher Meyer at this IQ² World Leaders event on September 29

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IQ² Magazine

This week, The Magazine brings you both sides of the story on WikiLeaks and the pros and cons of government stimulus spending

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