Twists and Turns in the journey of Yashwant Sinha.

Yashwant Sinha, former IAS official, is an Indian politician and a former finance minister of India (1990–1991 under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and March 1998 – July 2002 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and foreign minister (July 2002 – May 2004) in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet. 

Sinha was born on 6th November 1937, in Patna, Bihar into a Kayastha family. He received his master's degree in Political Science in 1958. Subsequently, he taught the subject at the University of Patna till 1960.

Sinha joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960 and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure. He served as Sub-Divisional Magistrate and District Magistrate for 4 years. He was Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the Finance Department of the Bihar Government for 2 years after which he worked in the Ministry of Commerce as Deputy Secretary to the Government of India.

From 1971 to 1973, he was First Secretary (Commercial) in the Indian Embassy, Bonn, Germany. Subsequently, he worked as Consul General of India in Frankfurt from 1973 to 1974. After working for over seven years in this field, he acquired experience in matters relating to foreign trade and India's relations with the European Economic Community. Thereafter, he worked in the Department of Industrial Infrastructure, Government of Bihar State and in the Ministry of Industry, government of India dealing with foreign industrial collaborations, technology imports, intellectual property rights and industrial approvals.

He later was Joint Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Surface Transport from 1980 to 1984, his main responsibilities were road transport, ports and shipping. 

He resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in 1984 and joined active politics as a member of the Janata Party. He was appointed All-India General secretary of the party in 1986 and was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament) in 1988.

When the Janata Dal was formed in 1989, he was appointed General Secretary of the party. He worked as Minister of Finance from November 1990 to June 1991 in Chandra Shekhar's Cabinet.

He became the National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party in June 1996. He was appointed finance minister in March 1998. He was appointed as Minister for External Affairs on 1 July 2002. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, he was defeated in Hazaribagh Constituency. He re-entered the Parliament in 2005. On 13 June 2009, he resigned from the post of vice-president of BJP.

Sinha was the finance minister until 1 July 2002, when he exchanged jobs with foreign minister Jaswant Singh. Sinha, during his tenure, was forced to roll back some of his government's major policy initiatives for which he was much criticised. Still, Sinha is widely credited for pushing through several major reform measures that put the Indian economy on a firm growth trajectory. Among them are lowering of real interest rates, introducing tax deduction for mortgage interest, freeing up the telecommunications sector, helping fund the National Highways Authority, and deregulating the petroleum industry. 

Sinha is also known for being the first Finance Minister to break the 53-year tradition of presenting the Indian budget at 5 pm local time, a practice held over from British Rule days that sought to present the Indian budget at a time convenient to the British Parliament (1130a GMT) rather than India's Parliament.

Sinha has written a comprehensive account of his years as Finance Minister titled Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer.

On 25 April 2015, the French Government honoured Yashwant Sinha with Officier de la Légion d’Honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour), the highest French civilian distinction bestowed upon him in recognition of his international action taken during his stint as Union Minister of Finance, Minister External Foreign Affairs and for his invaluable contribution to international issues. Giving the Honour to Sinha on Saturday, French Ambassador to India François Richier said as Minister of External Affairs, and Chair of the Indo-French Parliamentary Friendship Group since its very inception (2009-2014), Sinha contributed to the deepening of the Indo-French strategic partnership, launched during the visit of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Paris (September 1998) and the development of ties between France and India. Created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Legion of Honour is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients.

Sinha, mostly also known as the straight forward and Crusader of corruption, had challenged the action of the Central Government of entering into the contract with Dassault, for supply of Rafael Fighter Aircrafts, before the Supreme Court of India by filing a writ petition seeking for a writ of mandamus to the Central Bureau of Investigation to register the complaint and investigate the allegations of corruption duly monitored by the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court refused to entertain and interfere in the matter on the ground of national security, leaving it to the parties concerned to exhaust other remedies available under law (Parliament) without expressing any opinion on the merits of the matter, and by limiting its opinion expressed in the course of the order only from the standpoint of jurisdiction of Supreme Court to entertain such a writ petition for mandamus. His Review Petition before the Supreme Court was also unsuccessful. 

Parliament of  India is another forum before which the allegations of corruption can be urged and the Parliament has the discretionary power to investigate the matter through the committee concerned. The allegations made by Sinha, in the matter of Rafael Fighter Aircrafts, so far, have not been investigated by the Parliament so far, and the government has also  been found refusing and opposing to get the allegations investigated in the matter on some extraneous reasons, atleast to prove itself as non-corrupt and non-beneficiary. 

Even then, none of the party functionary or a person with social responsibility and commitment towards integrity and transparency, has criticized the action of Sinha so far, proving his calibre, integrity and honesty. 

Sinha's journey of social responsibility and against injustice is still on, with more spirit and experience.