K. Natwar Singh, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs
Kunwar Natwar Singh, IFS (born 16 May 1931) is 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, one of the most competitive and prestigious government services, in 1953. In 1984, he resigned from the service to contest elections as a member of the Indian National Congress party. He won the election and served as a union minister of state until 1989. Thereafter, he had a patchy political career until being made India's foreign minister in 2004. However, 18 months later, he had to resign under a cloud after the UN's Volcker committee named both him and the Congress party to which he belonged as beneficiaries of illegal pay-offs in the Iraqi oil scam.