Vishvjit Singh
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Vishvjit Prithvijit Singh (29 October 1946 - 6 August 2017) was an Indian politician with the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
party. He is a great-grandson of Pratap Singh of Kapurthala.


Biography

Singh was born on 29 October 1946 at Kapurthala House, Jalandhar, to father Kanwar Ranjit Singh and Mother Kanwarani Anjana Singh of Kapurthala, and was later adopted by Kanwarani Surjit Kaur, the widow of Captain Kanwar Prithvijit Singh of Kapurthala. He studied at
The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a Selective school, selective all-boys Private school, private boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer ...
, Dehra Dun (I.S.C.).Outlook Magazine, 8 November 2010
/ref> He was first elected to the
Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
(the Upper House of the Indian Parliament) in April 1982, representing the State of
Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
. He returned for a second term from April 1988 to April 1994. In 1989, he married Kanwarani Vijay Thakur Singh, who is a diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service and is currently serving at the
Ministry of External Affairs, India Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...
as Secretary (East). Singh has been a delegate to several International Conferences as well as to the United Nations General Assembly a number of times. He has been a member of numerous committees of the Indian Parliament and has also done work in the field of perspective planning. He has written extensively in magazines and newspapers on issues mainly related to planning perspectives. As chairman of his party's computer department, Singh has also driven initiatives to make more use of technology in election efforts, including putting publicity material, speeches and posters online, installing servers, setting up SMS software to facilitate the sending of bulk SMSs, and establishing a support team. Singh supports dividing the larger Indian states into smaller units. In 2010, he wrote a book of Hindi poetry entitled ''Kuch Shabd Kuch Lakeerein'', published by Yatra Books, the Hindi imprint of Penguin India. The book was released at the Doon Literary Festival in April 2010.


Controversies

In 1994, Singh was investigated, along with many other members of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament including the current Prime Minister of India, for seeking election from a state of which he was supposedly not a resident by Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan. However, he expressed grudging admiration for the results Seshan achieved in ensuring free and fair elections in which all parties followed the rules. The matter regarding the anomaly in the law was finally settled by an amendment to the law and all these prosecutions have lapsed.


Health issues

Singh has been overweight since childhood. Upon his election to Parliament, then-Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
ordered
Arun Nehru Arun Kumar Nehru (24 April 1944 – 25 July 2013) was an Indian politician and columnist. He was member of the 9th Lok Sabha from Bilhaur as a Janata Dal leader. Earlier, he was member of the 7th and 8th Lok Sabhas from Rae Bareli on a ...
to help him lose weight as Singh weighed almost 160 kg; his weight dropped to as low as 108 kg once while he was hospitalised for a heart attack, but his weight increased again after the hospitalisation.


Committee memberships

*Member of the Special Working Group of the Accommodation Committee for the 9th Asian Games in 1982 *Member of The Advisory Council of The Ministry of Textiles, 1984–89 *Member of The Working Group for the chapter on Textiles in the 7th Plan Document *Member of the National Productivity Council, 1988 *Member, Public Accounts Committee (Fiscal Body of the Indian Parliament), Ninth Lok Sabha, 1990–91 *Member, Public Accounts Committee, Tenth Lok Sabha (1999–92), member of the
Indian Council for Cultural Relations The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, involved in India's global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their people. It was founded on 9 April ...
, 1989–90 *Member of the Indian Board of Forestry, 1990–91 *Member of the Parliament Standing Committee on Agriculture, Tenth Lok Sabha, 1992–93 *Member of the Joint Committee of Parliament for the Copyright Bill, 1992–93 *Member of the Parliament Standing Committee on Petroleum and Chemicals, Tenth Lok Sabha, 1993–94 *''Ex Officio'' Member of the Publicity and Publication Committee, All India Congress Committee, Indian National Congress, ?-present


Other positions

*Special Representative of Congress President and Prime Minister of India to The Working Group Set Up for the Elections to the Namibian Parliament, 1998 *Special Representative of Congress President and Prime Minister of India
Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, assassination of his mother, then–prime ...
to
Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...
, 1989 *Special Representative of Congress President Rajiv Gandhi to
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, 1990 *Member of Indian parliamentary delegations to New Zealand −1986, Spain −1987, Colombia −1990 *Member of Indian parliamentary delegations to the International Parliamentary Union at
Punta Del Este Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este grew to become a resort for the Latin and North American jet set and tourists. T ...
,
Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
in 1990, New Delhi, 1994. *Member of the Indian Delegation to the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...
for the 46th Session in 1991, the 47th Session in 1992, the 50th Session in 1995 and the 63rd Session in 2008 *Chairman, Computer Department, All India Congress Committee, Indian National Congress, ?-present


Publications

* Author of ''Kuchh Shabd Kuchh Lakeerein'' (Hindi), (Yatra Books, 2010, ) * Wrote various articles on politics, economics and perspective planning in: ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...
'' (Calcutta), ''The Daily'' (Mumbai), ''
The Free Press Journal ''The Free Press Journal'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper that was established in 1928 by Swaminathan Sadanand, who also acted as its first editor. First produced to complement a news agency, the Free Press of India, it was a s ...
'' (Mumbai), ''The
Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...
'' (New Delhi), '' The Pioneer'' (New Delhi), ''
The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *''Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) * ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' *''San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *''Kokomo Tribune' ...
'' (Chandigarh), ''
The Asian Age ''The Asian Age'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper with editions published in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. It also prints an "international edition" in London. It was launched in February 1994. The same publishing company also pro ...
'' (New Delhi). *Co-author of ''Congress Approach to Electoral Reforms'' (Congress Committee on Policy & Programmes (CCPP)), New Delhi, 1988; ''Power to the People''. (CCPP), New Delhi, 1989; ''Power to the People – The Urban Imperative'' (CCPP), New Delhi, 1989.


See also

*
The Kapurthala Royal Collateral Families Kapurthala State, was a kingdom and later princely state of the Punjab Province of British India. Ruled by Ahluwalia Sikh rulers, spread across . According to the 1901 census the state had a population of 314,341 and contained two towns and 16 ...
* Pratap Singh of Kapurthala * Bikrama Singh


References


Further reading

*''Rajya Sabha Who is who'', published by the Rajya Sabha
Website of the Indian National CongressEradication of Poverty & other Development Issues – Agenda Item 53 – Statement by Mr. Vishvjit P. Singh, Member of The Indian Delegation at The Second Committee of The 63rd Session of The United Nations General Assembly on 22 October 2008Statement by Mr. Vishvjit P. Singh, Member of the Indian Delegation, at the Thematic Debate on Nuclear Weapons in the First Committee of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly on 16 October 2008Statement by Mr. Vishvjit P. Singh, Former Member of Parliament and Member of the Indian Delegation, on Agenda Item 27 – Effects of Atomic Radiation at the Fourth Committee of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on 16 October 2008Statement by Mr. Vishvjit P. Singh, Member of the Indian Delegation on the Rule of Law at the National & International Level at the Sixth Committee of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on 13 October 2008
*[http://meaindia.nic.in/speech/2008/10/16ss01.pdf Statement by H.E. Mr. Vishvjit P. Singh Member of the Indian Delegation at the Thematic Debate on Nuclear Weapons in the First Committee 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly ]


External links

*http://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/ips/k/kapurthala.html *http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/ga/63/2008/ga081020am.rm -Vishvjit P. Singh Speaking in the General Assembly of The United Nations on 20 October 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Vishvjit 1946 births 2017 deaths The Doon School alumni People from Kapurthala Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra Indian National Congress politicians