His love for Fiji and Fijians is remembered with respect
Venkat Raman
Auckland, June 15, 2020
Ajay Singh, a former High Commissioner to Fiji who was active in federal and state politics in India, passed away in Agra, India, on Tuesday, June 9, 2020.
He was 70 years old and according to available information, died of heart failure.
Mr Singh was a regular visitor to New Zealand where he had many friends and this Reporter had known for more than 20 years. He was a jovial, honest and straightforward person and never minced words to express his true opinion over people and issues.
Tribute by Sir Anand Satyanand
Former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand described him as a ‘long-standing, warm-hearted and consistent friend.’
“In the course of life, there are people who are personable and who maintain an active interest in current events and politics of the day. Ajay Singh, as a writer and journalist, was one of such person. He had studied journalism in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury in the 1970s and kept in touch with things here, years after returning to Fiji and then India,” he said.
Sir Anand said that Mr Singh made a number of recurring visits to New Zealand and kept in touch with a wide group of friends, with whom he kept in contact.
“The remarkable thing was that his approach was exactly the same with regard to Fiji, from which country he came in the 1970s when his father was Indian High Commissioner there. Like his coming to New Zealand, he returned to Fiji time and again taking an interest in current events and the people of the country. So much so was this the case that in 2005 he received an assignment himself for three years to be High Commissioner, a task that he set about with flair supported by his wife Shiromani who was born and raised in Fiji,” he said.
Sir Anand said that his comments leave aside the way Mr Singh functioned in his own country of birth, India, where he not only plied his career over time as a journalist with newspapers and magazines, but as an author of books.
“With a personality that has been mentioned, politics beckoned for a time and he served as a Parliamentarian, at state and then federal levels in the 1980s. In the latter, he received appointment as a Union Minister for Railways for a term in the government led by Vishwanath Pratap Singh.
After this phase he turned to governance and participated for example on the Council of Delhi University. His death, at age 70, deprives many who knew him of a remarkable achiever as well as a longstanding, warm-hearted and consistent friend,” Sir Anand said.
By Graeme Waters
Graeme Waters, who served as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka based in Delhi from August 2004 to 2007 (he was Deputy High Commissioner there in 1987) said that Mr Singh was a charming, erudite and thoughtful person who was equally at ease in India, Fiji or New Zealand.
“He was wonderfully connected, and could straddle the divide between India’s robust domestic politics and the subtleties of international diplomacy. He and his late wife Shiromani were a formidable team, and it was an honour for my wife Audrey and me to be counted among their many Kiwi friends,” Mr Waters said.
By Gillian Green
The late Michael Green was New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Fiji during the same time as Mr Singh. His wife Gillian Green recalled their times together as ‘one of the great pleasures of the posting.’
“Discussing politics in general and Hindi movies in particular was a shared passion of us, two couples,” she said.
By Ahemad Bhamji
Ahemad Bhamji had known Mr Sigh for more than 50 years, first as a fellow student of Shiromani in Delhi and later as a family friend. There was not a single visit of Mr Singh to New Zealand during which Mr Bhamji was not a host.
“It is hard to find a person like Ajay Singh who had true feelings and respect for Fiji and Fijians. He played a crucial role in promoting the welfare of our people all the time, especially during the first and second coup that occurred in 1987. He was a great, personal friend and hence it was heart-breaking to receive a call to say that he had passed away. I pray Almighty Allah that he soul rests in peace,” he said.
A rare politician
India’s Janata Dal United (JDU) Party General Secretary, said that Mr Singh was a rare politician.
“He was a misfit in politics, he was too much of a gentleman. He had friendship towards all and malice towards none,” he said.
Mr Singh was a President of the All India Jat Maha Sammelan and a Minister in the VP Singh Cabinet from December 7, 1989 to November 10, 1990.
Political pundits in India said that when JDU leaders Devi Lal and Charan Singh fell out in 1982, Mr Singh was one person who managed to remain friends with opposing camps.
Similarly, despite the bitterness between Mr Charan Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav, he retained ties with both. He had friends across the political spectrum, from Madhu Limaye and George Fernandes to Biju Patnaik, Karpoori Thakur, Sharad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and V P Singh.
In 2013, Congress leaders from the Jat community, Natwar Singh and Bhupinder Singh Hooda , backed him for the post of President of All India Jat Maha Sammelan.
Illustrious family
Singh was the son of respected civil servant and diplomat Bhagwan Singh, who was also a shining light of his community. After serving in Army as Captain, obtained one of the war-time vacancies in the ICS and became the first Jat to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
From 2005 to 2007, Ajay Singh was India’s High Commissioner to Fiji, a post held by his father 30 years earlier. The family has an old association with Fiji, since Singh’s great-grandfather was among the first indentured labourers from India to be sent by the British to the Pacific island. His late wife Shiromani grew up in Fiji, although she was educated in India.
He was working on the history of the Jat community and also researching his family’s links with Fiji at the time of his death.
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