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Jaswant Singh has a tough task ahead

Jaswant Singh, who has been appointed deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, is known for his pro-reforms stance, and has an excellent understanding of commerce, economics and financial sector reforms.

Singh's views on the economy carry a lot of weight within the Bharatiya Janata Party, and he was a key member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee which drafted the final report on the securities scam.

Singh's appointment comes at a time when the BJP and its allies have set themselves the target of achieving seven per cent GDP growth rate per annum during the ninth Five Year Plan.

Only recently, the Commission had issued the draft Ninth Plan, which is a document prepared by the outgoing team headed by Professor Madhu Dandavate.

Within the BJP, Singh has received recognition as a kind of crisis manager, be it as the party's deputy leader in Parliament or as its emissary to Madras to bring about a rapprochement with an unrelenting J Jayalalitha of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

The astute politician has almost always perfectly executed the tasks assigned to him. His suave personality and fine oratorical skills have held him in good stead both with the masses and the intellectuals. Singh, as chairman of his party's manifesto committee for the general election, executed this responsibility too with his usual finesse.

Born in 1938 at Jasol in Rajasthan, Singh studied at the Mayo College, Ajmer, and later joined the army. After a distinguished career in the armed forces, he came over to the BJP and gradually rose in the party hierarchy. He was finance minister in the short-lived BJP government in 1996.

Singh was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1980. After a nine-year stint in the Upper House, he made it to the Lok Sabha in 1989 from Jodhpur. In 1991, he was returned from Chittorgarh, and retained the seat until the 1998 election, when he lost to Congress nominee Udailal Anjana.

In his years as an MP, Singh has been member of various parliamentary committees, including the business advisory committee, public accounts committee, committee of public undertaking and others. He was chairman of the estimates committee from May 1990 for a year, and the standing committee on environment and forests between 1991 and 1992. He had also chaired the standing committee on energy in 1993-94.

A multi-faceted personality, Singh's interests range from books and antiques to music and horses. To his credit, he has written a book titled, Outline of India's Security Concerns and contributed articles in Indian and foreign journals and newspapers on defence, foreign policy, international relations and current political developments.

He is a member of various internationally-acclaimed organisations, including Institute of Defence Studies, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Inter-Parliamentary Union, International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London. He has also been an alumnus of Georgetown University (leadership programme).

His intellectual pursuits apart, Singh has also been a sports enthusiast, especially golf, polo and chess. He has been associated with many sports organisations, like the Indian Golf Union, Equestrian Federation of India and Indian Polo Association.

UNI

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