Vishvjit Singh

Vishvjit Prithvijit Singh (Great Grandson of Col the Honourable Kanwar Sir Pratap Singh Bahadur of Kapurthala) (born Jalandhar, 29 October 1946) is an Indian politician with the Indian National Congress party.cite web|url=http://rajyasabha.nic.in/whoswho/previous_member/biograp_sketc_1f.htm#s|publisher=Rajya Sabha|accessdate=2007-12-10|title=Rajya Sabha Members: Biographical sketches, 1953-2003]

Biography

Vishvjit Singh of Kapurthala was born on 29 October 1946 at Kapurthala House, Jalandhar to father Kanwar Ranjit 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, Dehra Dun (I.S.C.).Fact|date=December 2007 He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of the Indian Parliament)in April 1982, representing the State of Maharashtra; he returned for a second term in April 1988.

In 1989, he married Kanwarani Vijay Thakur Singh, who is a diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service and as of 2007 serves as Joint Secretary to the President of India.Fact|date=December 2007

Singh has been a Delegate to various International Conferences as well as to the United Nations General Assembly a number of times. He has been a Member of various Committees of the Indian Parliament and has also done work in the field of Perspective Planning. He has written extensively in various 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 SMSes, and establishing a support team. [cite news|url=http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Political-Parties-Cant-Do-Without-Internet/48727|title=Political Parties Can't Do Without Internet!|work=Financial Express|date=2004-04-18|accessdate=2008-04-07] [cite news|work=Dataquest|url=http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/top_stories/2004/104040801.asp|date=2004-04-08|accessdate=2008-04-07|title=It's election Time|last=Khanna|first=Shweta]

Singh is a supporter of dividing the larger Indian states into smaller units. [cite news|last=Singh|first=Vishvjit|title=The Benefits of reorganization|url=http://www.india-seminar.com/2007/571/571_vishvjit_p_singh.htm|date=2007|accessdate=2008-04-07|work=Seminar Magazine]

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 residentFact|date=January 2008 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. [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E5D81439F933A05752C0A962958260|work=The New York Times|last=Hazarika|first=Sanjoy|title=India's Election Commissioner Gains a Following|date=1994-01-30|accessdate=2007-12-10] The matter regarding the anomaly in the law was finally settled by an amendment to the law and all these prosecutions have lapsed. [cite news|title=No domicile clause for RS elections|work=The Times of India|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1917385.cms|date=2006-08-23|accessdate=2008-04-07] or|date=January 2008

Health issues

Singh has been overweight ever since childhood. Upon his election to Parliament, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered Arun Nehru to help him lose weight, as he was nearly 160kg; his weight dropped as low as 108kg once while he was hospitalised for a heart attack, but bounced back soon afterwards. [cite news|archiveurl=http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:t8ZwsNo4_MUJ:www.hindustantimes.com/Redir.aspx%3FID%3Df11ebe43-79c6-4fef-a0fb-d77f47eca1d5&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=hk|archivedate=2007-12-03|accessdate=2007-12-10|date=2007-03-29|work=Hindustan Times|title=Party heavyweight|last=Chadha|first=Kumkum|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Redir.aspx?ID=f11ebe43-79c6-4fef-a0fb-d77f47eca1d5]

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, 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 [cite web|url=http://www.aicc.org.in/aicc-committees.php|publisher=Indian National Congress|title=All India Congress Committee: Committees|accessdate=2007-12-10]

Other positions

*Special Representative of Congress President and Prime Minister of India to The Working Group Set Up for the Elections to the Nambian Parliament, 1998
*Special Representative of Congress President and Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi to Mozambique, 1989
*Special Representative of Congress President Rajiv Gandhi to Afghanistan, 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, Uruguay in 1990, New Delhi, 1994.
*Member of the Indian Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly for the 46th Session in 1991, the 47th Session in 1992, and the 50th Session in 1995
*Chairman, Computer Department, All India Congress Committee, Indian National Congress, ?-present [cite web|url=http://www.aicc.org.in/organisation_aicc_departments_cells.php|publisher=Indian National Congress|title=All India Congress Committee: Departments & Cells|accessdate=2007-12-10]

Publications

*Published various articles upon Politics, Economics and Perspective Planning in: The Telegraph, Calcutta, The Daily, Mumbai, The Free Press Journal, Mumbai, The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, The Pioneer, New Delhi, The Tribune, Chandigarh, The Asian Age, 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.

References

Further reading

*"Rajya Sabha Who is who", published by the Rajya Sabha
* [http://www.aicc.org.in Website of the Indian National Congress]
* [http://www.rediff.com/chat/vpschat.htm Chat session with Singh hosted by Rediff]
* [http://www.indiarightsonline.com/Sabrang/india5.nsf/38b852a8345861dd65256a980059289d/8d4cadb89de3c7de65256e0f004af882?OpenDocument]
* [http://www.india-today.com/itoday/19991004/election7.html]
* [http://pd.cpim.org/2004/1121/11212004_sahmat.htm]
* [http://www.icrier.org/pdf/shome2.PDF]
* [http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1995/19951204.ga9022.html]
* [http://uqconnect.net/~zzhsoszy/ips/k/kapurthala.html]

ee Also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kapurthala_Royal_Collateral_Familieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratap_singh_of_kapurthalahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikrama_Singhhttp://www.royalark.net/India/kapurth.htmhttp://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/ips/k/kapurthala.html