Hyderabad, Sept. 28 -- M Somasekhar

The passing away of Jaswant Singh, the multi-faceted politician, former External Affairs Minister, on September 27, in a way, marks the end of the 'political triumvirate' in the BJP led, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), who were instrumental for the nuclear tests of Pokhran-2 in 1998.

Jaswant Singh, 82, was in coma for the last about six years.

The triumvirate consisted of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Jaswant Singh. There were a handful more, politicians and scientists, who were in the know of the top secret mission which was code named, 'Operation Shakthi'.

Call it a strange coincidence or irony, all three, went into a state of semi or'comatose' and passed a...