Sinha

It has been two decades now since Yashwant Sinha quit his 24 yearlong career in the services to take a plunge into active politics when he joined the Janata Party in 1984

It has been two decades now since Yashwant Sinha quit his 24 yearlong career in the services to take a plunge into active politics when he joined the Janata Party in 1984. His involvement had soon paid off and within two years he moved on to become the party's General Secretary. That was the beginning of his political career after which he shifted favours to the BJP.

Ever since, there has been no looking back for the man who started his work life as a lecturer in political science at the Patna University and went on to become first the Union Finance minister and is now the External Affairs minister. Smooth as Sinha's career graph may appear, he has not been spared of brickbats - for flicking favours and ideologies: having once vehemently denounced the Sangh Parivar for the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Sinha went on to become a steadfast BJP member. It was his tenure as the finance minister though which was most eventful. He presented two challenging budgets at a time when the country was going through one of its toughest financial conditions.

Though the 1998 budget met with vehement opposition with demands of a rollback, his 1999 budget was hailed. He is also marked for taking the politically controversial decision of pledging the RBI's gold reserves with the Bank of England.

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