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Arun Singh, security advisor to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, has once again left the government, this time within a month of joining.
Speculation is rife that he decided to resign because Jaswant Singh may no more be the foreign minister after Monday evening's Cabinet reshuffle.
According to Bharatiya Janata Party sources, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh will swap posts.
Arun Singh's contract with the government was till June end. He may not prefer to work under anyone other than his friend Jaswant Singh, who has described Arun Singh as the best defence minister that India ever had.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao said she had no information about Arun Singh leaving.
Arun Singh was brought in after the Kaluchak massacre in Jammu on May 14. This was his second stint as advisor to the National Democratic Alliance government.
The last time was when Jaswant Singh was in charge of both foreign and defence ministries after George Fernandes resigned in the wake of the Tehelka scandal in March last year.
Even thought Arun Singh was appointed as an advisor, he was virtually running the Ministry of Defence. Such was his control over the ministry that the Opposition had labelled him as an "extra-constitutional authority".
To his credit, during that period Arun Singh put in place the basics for the much-awaited integration of higher defence management under a chief of defence staff. He was also keenly involved in drafting the set up of India's nuclear command.
The MoD's new structure was evolving fast under Arun Singh's supervision, but when Fernandes returned to the ministry Arun Singh left abruptly, and the CDS and nuclear command were yet again caught up in bureaucratic wrangling.
Arun Singh, who was the minister of state for defence in the Rajiv Gandhi government of the 80s and who had resigned after Bofors clouds began to gather, is expected to return to his home in Uttaranchal.
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