Dinesh Singh

Dinesh Singh

Dinesh Singh (19 July 1925-30 November 1995) was an Indian politician. A member of the Kalakankar dynasty, Singh served as India's External Affairs Minister twice. Singh was born in 1925 in Pratapgarh to Raja Avadesh Singh and educated at the Doon School and at Colvin College, Lucknow.

He was elected from Pratapgarh for seven terms from the Second Lok Sabha (1957-62), to the Fifth Lok Sabha (1971-77), and then again for the Eighth and Ninth Lok Sabha 1984-1991, serving in the Rajya Sabha in the interim.

After graduating from Lucknow University in the north, Dinesh Singh was sent by the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, a close family friend, as private secretary to the Indian ambassador in London and later Paris. On returning home from Paris in 1951, Singh temporarily became private secretary to Nehru and tried joining the diplomatic corps but was offered a position only in category "B" of the Indian Foreign Service. He declined, opted for politics and was elected to parliament for the first time in 1957 from Banda in Uttar Pradesh. From 1962 to 66 he was Deputy Minister in the Ministry of External Affairs and Minister of Commerce 1967 to 1969 and 1988 to 1989. He was Minister of External Affairs 1969 to 1970 and 1993 to 1995. Singh was criticized heavily in his second term as External Affairs Minister because he was of the opinion that some compromise should have been made with Pakistan on Kashmir.