Natwar Singh

Natwar Singh (2005)

Kunwar Natwar Singh, IFS (16 May 1929 – 10 August 2024) was an Indian diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005. Singh was selected into the Indian Foreign Service in 1953. In 1984, he resigned from the service to contest elections as a member of the Indian National Congress party.

Quotes

• One afternoon, Mrs Gandhi had some free time and decided to go for a drive, along with me. A few miles outside Kabul she saw a dilapidated building surrounded by a few trees, and asked the Afghan security officer what it was. Bagh-e-Babur, he told us, and Mrs Gandhi decided to drive up to it. The protocol department went into a tizzy as no security arrangements had been made. Regardless, we headed towards Babur’s grave. She stood at the grave with her head slightly lowered and I behind her. She said to me, ‘I have had my brush with history.’ I told her I had had two. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked. I said that paying homage to Babur in the company of the Empress of India was a great honour.
  • K. Natwar Singh - One Life is Not Enough (2014) and cited in [1]