Darbara Singh

Darbara Singh (b. 10 February 1916 — 10 March 1990) Chief Minister of Punjab.

Bio

Sardar Darbara Singh (1916–1990), born into the prosperous Jat zamindar family of Sardar Dalip Singh Johal in Jandiala, in the Jullundur district of Punjab. He was educated at Khalsa College, Amritsar and became involved with the freedom movement under the aegis of Indian National Congress, being imprisoned by the British authorities between 1942 to 1945 and again in 1946. In the aftermath of the partition of the country, he was involved in the creation of refugee camps for the displaced people. He started his political career as President of the Jullundur Congress Party (1946–1950) and went on to serve as General Secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC, 1953–56) and subsequently served as its president from 1957-1964. He served in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from 1952–69, holding many portfolios including the Agriculture, Development and Home ministries.

At the national level he was appointed to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1954 and served in the apex congress decision making body the Congress Working Committee from 1962, he held both appointments till his death in 1990. He was elected to the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha in 1971 from the Hoshiarpur constituency in Punjab. Even though he was never appointed as a Union Minister, he retained deep influence in the party being elected Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha in 1971. In 1975 he served as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, one of the most influential parliamentary committees as it overseas all Public Sector companies, across ministerial lines.

In the state elections of 1980, he was elected to Punjab Legislative Assembly from Nakodar, and was appointed as Chief Minister on February 17, 1980. The 1980s were a turbulent time in the history of Punjab marked by an increase in violence and demand for a separate Sikh homeland, Sardar Darbara Singh remained Chief Minister for approximately three years only.During all this time his government was grappling with the rising Khalistani militancy in the state. There was a spate of assassinations, prime among them being the broad daylight murder of Lala Jagat Narain,head of the Punjab Kesri group of news papers of Jalandhar, DIG of Punjab Police Jalandhar range Avtar Singh Atwal in the Golden Temple Complex and several other public men & police officers. Due to the worsening law and order situation due to increase in terrorist violence, the tenure of the ministry was cut short and the Darbara Singh ministry resigned and Presidents rule was imposed in the state( Art.356 of Indian Constitution) on June 6, 1983.

Sardar Darbara Singh was then elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1984, and served with distinction in Council of States being elected the Chairman of the House Committee in 1986.Sardar Darbara Singh made a place for himself as a good Congress party functionary & a good manager of party affairs. As a result he was entrusted with several crisis management assignments with in the Congress party, especially in its state units by Late Rajive Gandhi.However as an administrator he was not much of a success as chief minister of Punjab.He died after a short illness on 10 March 1990. He was survived by his wife, Sardarni Gurbachan Kaur and four children.

References

1. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, SIKH TWAREEKH (Sikh History in Punjabi in 5 volumes), Sikh University Press, Belgium, 2007. 2. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, SIKH HISTORY (in English in 10 volumes), Sikh University Press, Belgium, 2010-11.

Persondata
Name	Singh, Darbara
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1916
Place of birth
Date of death	1990
Place of death

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