He was also conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2001.

His trademark epaulettes and his customary evening drink were the only vestiges of his army background that he carried with him after joining politics.

The man who joined the BJP at its inception in 1980 was never identified with any camp in the BJP; nor was he close to the party's ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Jaswant Singh, a liberal democrat who was all for economic reforms when he was the finance minister during the BJP-led government between 1999 and 2004, is a prolific writer who has authored ten books.

The latest, 'Jinnah -- India, Partition, Independence,' cost him his membership of the BJP.

The 1938 born Singh hails from Rajasthan and is an alumnus of Mayo College and the National Defence Academy in Khadakvasla near Pune.

Singh spent much of his career as an MP in the Rajya Sabha. But he was elected to the Lok Sabha twice. This time, he won from Darjeeling with the support of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha whom the BJP promised a separate Gorkhaland if it came to power.