Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942), known publicly as “Captain Amarinder Singh” or “Captain Maharaja Amarinder Singh Of Patiala”, is an Indian politician, military historian, author, former royal and former veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. An elected Member of the Legislative Assembly from Patiala, he was also the president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, the state division of the Indian National Congress. He has also previously served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007. He is currently the oldest chief minister by age, serving any state in India. His father was the last Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala. He has also served in the Indian Army from 1963 to 1966.In 1980, he won a seat in the Lok Sabha for the first time. As of February 2021, Singh also serves as the chairman of the Punjab Urdu Academy.Captain Singh resigned as the Chief Minister of Punjab on 18 September 2021.
Personal life :-
Singh is the son of Maharaja Sir Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur of Patiala belonging to the Phulkian dynasty. He attended the Loreto Convent, Tara Hall, Shimla and Lawrence School, Sanawar before going to The Doon School, Dehradun. He has one son, Raninder Singh, and one daughter, Jai Inder Kaur. His wife, Preneet Kaur, served as an Member of Parliament and was Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to October 2012.
His elder sister Maharaj kumari Heminder Kaur is married to former Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh Of Jhagina. He is also related to Shiromani Akali Dal (A) supremo and former IPS Officer Simranjit Singh Mann. Mann’s wife and Amarinder Singh’s wife, Preneet Kaur, are sisters.
Army Career :-
Singh served in the Indian Army from June 1963 to December 1966 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He was commissioned into the Sikh Regiment. He served as the aide-de-camp to the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command, Lieutenant General Harbaksh Singh, from December 1964. He left the army in early 1965 to look after his family but came back when indo-pak war broke out & participated in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war.
His father and grandfather were also in army and many times he said that “Army will always be my first love”.
Political career :-
He was inducted into the Congress by Rajiv Gandhi, who was his friend from school and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. In 1984, he resigned from Parliament and from Congress as a protest against the Army action during Operation Blue Star. Subsequently, he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal was elected to the state legislature from Talwandi Sabo and became a minister in the state government for Agriculture, Forest, Development and Panchayats.
In 1992 he broke away from the Akali Dal and formed a splinter group named Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic) which later merged with the Congress in 1998 (after his party’s crushing defeat in VidhanSabha election in which he himself was defeated from his own constituency where he got only 856 votes) after Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the party. He was defeated by Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra from Patiala Constituency in 1998 by a margin of 33,251 votes. He served as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on three occasions from 1999 to 2002, 2010 to 2013 and 2015 to 2017, he also became Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002 and continued until 2007.
In September 2008, a special committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha, during the tenure of a government led by Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party, expelled him on the count of regularities in the transfer of land related to the Amritsar Improvement Trust. In 2010, the Supreme Court of India held his expulsion unconstitutional on the grounds that it was excessive and unconstitutional.
He was appointed as chairman of Punjab Congress Campaign Committee in 2008. Captain Amarinder Singh is also a Permanent Invitee to the Congress Working Committee since 2013. He defeated senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley by a margin of more than 102,000 votes in 2014 general elections. He has been a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for five terms representing Patiala (Urban) thrice, Samana and Talwandi Sabo once each.
On 27 November 2015, Amarinder Singh was appointed President of Punjab Congress in the run up to Punjab elections slated for 2017. On 11 March 2017 Congress Party won the State Assembly Elections under his leadership.
Amarinder Singh was sworn in as the 26th Chief Minister of Punjab on 16 March 2017 at Punjab Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh. The oath of office was administered by the Punjab governor, V.P. Singh Badnore. He was appointed president of the Jat Mahasabha in 2013.
On 18 September 2021, he resigned as the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Books :-
He has also written books on war and Sikh history which include A Ridge Too Far, Lest We Forget,
The Last Sunset: Rise and Fall of Lahore Durbar
The Sikhs in Britain: 150 years of Photographs. Among his most recent works are Honour and Fidelity: India’s Military Contribution to the Great War 1914 to 1918 released in Chandigarh on 6 December 2014.
The Monsoon War: Young Officers Reminisce – 1965 India-Pakistan War- which contains his memoirs of the 1965 Indo-Pak war.
References :-
- Quint, The (10 March 2017). “Punjab Live: Modi Congratulates Amarinder, Wishes Him Happy B’Day”. The Quint. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
- “Amarinder Singh sworn in as Punjab CM”. The Hindu. The Hindu. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- Goswami, Dev. “Punjab election results 2017: Full list of winners”. indiatoday.intoday.in. Living Media India Limited. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- “Congress in States – Punjab”. inc.in. All India Congress Committee. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- “Who is CaptAmarinder Singh? Everything you need to know”. The Indian Express. Express Web Desk. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- May 15, YudhvirRana / TNN /; 2021; Ist, 16:42. “Dissent has Punjab chief minister on sticky wicket | Amritsar News – Times of India”. The Times of India. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
- “Captain Amarinder back in charge in Punjab for second time”. The New Indian Express. PTI. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- “Punjab Urdu Academy”. www.punjaburduacademy.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
- “”Humiliated” Amarinder Singh Quits As Chief Minister, Says Options Open”. NDTV.com. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- Singh, Khushwant (15 February 2017). Captain Amarinder Singh: The People’s Maharaja: An Authorized Biography. Hay House, Inc. ISBN 978-93-85827-44-0.
- “Seven Doscos in 15th Lok Sabha”. The Indian Express. 31 May 2009. Archived from the original on 3 June 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- “Members : Lok Sabha”. loksabhaph.nic.in. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
- Nibber, Gurpreet Singh (24 July 2017). “Obituary | A sister, a guardian, the royal mother: Rajmata of Patiala is no more”. Hindustan Times. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
- Sethi, Chitleen K. (1 January 2017).
- “Pushed to the margins, Simranjit Mann carrying legacy of a lost cause”. Hindustan Times. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
“Profile – Amarinder Singh”. Bloomberg.
“Army’s account of 1965 war padded, says Capt’s new book”. Hindustan Times. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2017. - “But for Gen Harbakhsh, Punjab would’ve been lost in 1965 war: Capt”. Hindustan Times. 30 August 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
- “Amarinder Singh Welcomes Honour To Officer Who Tied Protester To Jeep”. NDTV.com. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
DhananjayMahapatra, Dhananjay (27 April 2010). “‘Amarinder’s removal undemocratic'”. The Times of India. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. - Amarinder Singh Wikipedia
- “Amarinder appointed Captain of Punjab Congress”. Daily Post India. 27 November 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.