Indian politician
Surjit Singh Barnala
(21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the 11th
chief minister of Punjab
state from 1985 to 1987. Following that he served as the
governor
of
Tamil Nadu
,
Uttarakhand
,
Andhra Pradesh
, lieutenant governor of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
and a
Union Minister
on handling various portfolios.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Barnala was born in Begpur Village in
Ateli
Tehsil,
Haryana
. Born of a well-to-do family (his father was a magistrate), Barnala passed law from
Lucknow University
in 1945. In Lucknow, he was involved in the
Quit India Movement
of 1942. Subsequently, he practised law for some years, and became politically active in the late 1960s, rising through the ranks of
Akali Dal
. Though, he first stood for election in 1952 but lost by a meagre 4 votes.
Politics
[
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]
Barnala's first ministerial assignment was in 1969 when he has sworn in as education minister in the Justice
Gurnam Singh
Government and was instrumental in setting up the
Guru Nanak Dev University
in
Amritsar
.
In 1977 he was elected to the
Indian Parliament
and was inducted in the
Morarji Desai
Cabinet as the agriculture minister at the time when the ministry included Irrigation Water Resources, Food, Environment and Forests, Consumer Affairs, Power and Chemical And Fertilizers and Rural Development. In 1978, Barnala signed the historic
Ganga Waters Agreement
(Farakka Agreement) with
Bangladesh
.
In 1979, during the turmoil in the national government when PM
Morarji Desai
resigned, the then-president
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
toyed with the idea of appointing an interim government with Barnala as prime minister but had to drop the idea at the last moment, fearing horse-trading by a top member of the Cabinet, and Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary
Charan Singh
assumed prime ministership.
Barnala served as
chief minister
of
Punjab
from 29 September 1985 until 11 May 1987. Barnala, a member of the Sikh political party
Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal)
, served as
chief minister
during a period of Sikh militant movement in Punjab. The state had under in Barnala's chief ministership from 1985 to 1987, and after nearly two years in office,
President's Rule
was imposed.
In 1996, Barnala once again came close to becoming prime minister as in the
1996 Indian general election
, with no political party getting a mandate, it was a good time for a
regional party
to have its prime minister. Regional parties accounted for about 80 MPs in the
Lok Sabha
. The
Asom Gana Parishad
of
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
and
Telugu Desam Party
of
Chandra Babu Naidu
, including The Left parties, zeroed on Barnala, but at the last minute Barnala's parent party
Shiromani Akali Dal
led by Barnala's supposedly close friend
Parkash Singh Badal
without informing Barnala joined hands with the
Bharatiya Janata Party
hence Barnala yet again missed being
Prime Minister
.
In 1997, Barnala was a candidate of the
BJP
and its allies in the election of the
vice-president of India
.
In 1998, Barnala was again elected to
Parliament
and became the minister for Chemical & Fertilizers and Food & Consumer Affairs in the Vajpayee Cabinet.
At the time of his death, he was the patron of a four-party alliance Sanja Morcha in
Punjab
. Like few other anti-Congress leaders of his time, he has spent about three and a half years in jail as a political prisoner, including 11 months in solitary confinement.
Governorship
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]
Since then, Barnala has served as a governor of several states. He first served as governor of Tamil Nadu from 1990 to 1991 for about nine months. Barnala refused to recommend the dismissal of the Tamil Nadu government, and when he was later transferred as
governor of Bihar
he chose to resign. He served as the
lieutenant governor
of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
from December 1990 to 18 March 1993.
He was the first governor of
Uttarakhand
from its creation in 2000 until 2003,
[2]
and governor of
Andhra Pradesh
from 2003 to 2004. During this time he also held additional charge of
Orissa
as governor for some time and was governor of Tamil Nadu until 31 August 2011 during his Tamil Nadu years. He also held additional charge of
Puduchery
for a few months. He is the second longest-serving governor in Indian history after
Dr. A. R. Kidwai
and the only governor to have served three terms in the history of
Tamil Nadu
State of 300 years.
Author and painter
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In 1996, Barnala authored a book,
Story of an Escape,
about his experiences of living a disguised life in various locations of India. His other book released in December 2007 is titled
My Other Two Daughters
and has been transliterated in
braille
by
Kunwar Singh Negi
.
[3]
Barnala painted landscapes and political portraits, many of which are on display in the official residences he occupied in his various tenures. His paintings have also been sold in various fund raisers.
[4]
[5]
Personal life
[
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]
Surjit Singh Barnala was married to
Surjit Kaur Barnala
, who is also an active politician. In August 2009, Surjit Kaur become the President of the
Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal)
.
[6]
The couple had three sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Jasjit Barnala, is not actively involved in politics and is a businessman. Their second son,
Gaganjit
is a politician. His youngest son, NeilInder, died in a road accident in 1996 and daughter, Amrit, in 2012 of cancer.
[7]
He has 8 grandchildren varying from 37 years to 17 years old.
Death
[
edit
]
Barnala died at
PGIMER hospital, Chandigarh
, following a prolonged illness, on 14 January 2017, aged 91. He was admitted to the hospital on 12 January.
[1]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
As administrator of Puducherry
References
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External links
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Madras Presidency
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Tamil Nadu
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$ - acting, # - additional charge
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Departments
| Chemicals and Petro-Chemicals
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- Chemical Division
- Petrochemicals Division
- Monitoring and Evaluation Division (M&E Division)
- Plastic Parks
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Fertilizers
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- Urea Pricing Policy Division
- Fertilizer Movement
- Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) Fertilizer Policy and Projects
- Fertilizer Subsidy Division
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Pharmaceuticals
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CIPET
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Projects
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- Bulk Drug Parks
- Medical Devices Parks
- Tamil Nadu PCPIR
- Talcher Fertilizer LTD
- Ramagundam Fertilizers And Chemicals Limited
- Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan LTD
- Paradeep Plastic Park
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PSUs
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Secretaries
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Ministers
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Ministers of State
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Other
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