Swaran Singh: The unflappable Sardar
Behind the diplomat’s naïve veneer was a shrewd mind that stood him in good stead for 25 years in the Cabinet
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore visited India in August, 1966. Lee was suspicious of communist China, and a great admirer of Indian democracy. I was with him and foreign minister Swaran Singh in their official car, headed for South Block for a meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Lee pleaded repeatedly with Singh for India to lead the smaller countries in Asia, as a counterweight to China. It was the height of the Cold War. Swaran Singh did not wish to discuss this.
As we turned the corner near South Block, into what is now Hukmi Bai Marg, he parried the subject in his trademark style: “Excellence, how are thee temprachar in Singapur (sic) ?” The Sardar had calculated well. Before Lee could say more, it was time to alight at the PM’s gate. His pronunciation — rustic Punjabi — was typical of the affable Sardar. But behind his simple façade, his disarmingly homespun variant of English and his seemingly naïve veneer, was an unusually shrewd
mind with excellent judgement. That stood him in good stead for 25 continuous years in the Indian Cabinet, from 1952, in portfolios as varied as steel, agriculture, railways, defence and external affairs. 2017 marks his 110th birth anniversary. Robert McNamara, US defence secretary, was always ‘McManera’ in Swaran-Singhspeak, notably in Parliament. UNDP was pronounced as a single word, ‘Undup’. And that commonplace tool of foreign policy, the communiqué, was always ‘comunik’ when it escaped his lips.
In 1966, on the sidelines of the tripartite meeting non-aligned meeting (Tito, Nasser and Indira Gandhi), Swaran Singh briefed a clutch of Indian correspondents. Truth be told, this was an emasculated version of the Nehru-Nasser-Tito meeting, which Indira Gandhi decided, unwisely, to replicate. A young journalist was critical in his report the day before. He was gently chided by the Sardar. Addressing him by his first name, he said: “Inder, kuch soch samaj ke baat kara karo!” Inder Malhotra nodded respectfully.
At the UN Security Council in New
York, during the Bangladesh war in 1971, Swaran Singh faced the prolonged histrionics of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. As he heaped abuse on India (“Indian dogs ….”), a young officer, seated behind the foreign minister, scribbled a suggestion. He glanced at it. Even as Bhutto continued his rant, the Sardar slowly turned around in his seat, cupped his hand over the side of his mouth, and whispered: “This is nothing. I have seen much worse in Parliament.”
It was under Swaran Singh’s watch that I was appointed ambassador to Argentina at the age of 37. He had known me since 1966, when I accompanied him in Tashkent at the India-Pakistan Conference . At a small gathering in the MEA, a senior official remarked light-heartedly, in my presence, that I was going to a ‘retirement post’. The seemingly casual but cryptic response of the Sardar came with a hint of a smile: “Chadha is not going to retire!”
I was pleased to hear that from him.