5 Facts On Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh Who Died At 93

Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh died on Saturday at age 93, after a prolonged illness.

The veteran Congress leader died at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, near Delhi, where he had been undergoing treatment for the past few weeks. His family has confirmed his death.

Here are some facts on the Former External Affairs Minister:

• K Natwar Singh was born in 1931 in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan. He studied history at St. Stephen's College in Delhi, and later went to Cambridge University in the UK and Peking University in China.
• Mr Singh joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1953 at the age of 22. Over the years, he served as India's Deputy High Commissioner to the UK (1973-77), High Commissioner to Zambia (1977), and Ambassador to Pakistan (1980-82).
• He joined politics in the early 1980s and was elected as a MP from Bharatpur in 1984. He served as the Union Minister of State for Steel, Mines, and Coal, and Agriculture under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi from 1985-1989. He served as India's External Affairs Minister from 2004 to 2005 in the Manmohan Singh-government.
• K Natwar Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in 1984. He later received the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award, for his role in the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in 1983.
• Mr Singh resigned as External Affairs Minister in 2006 following allegations related to the oil-for-food scam. The scandal involved Iraq selling oil for food under UN supervision. But some people allegedly used this program for personal gain.
• Natwar Singh was named in a report as one of those people, but he alleged that he was made a scapegoat to absolve the Congress party. He left the Party in 2008 after a 25-year association and later published his autobiography, One Life Is Not Enough in 2014, which included controversial insights into Indian politics.