Former chief minister
The veteran politician and acclaimed author is the Congress face in the Punjab assembly elections early next year. The 74-year-old has authored many books on Sikh history and wars. He resigned twice from Parliament — first in 1984 in protest against the army action during Operation Blue Star and in 2016 after the Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal water-sharing agreement. He joined the army in 1963 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy but resigned in 1965. However, he soon rejoined the army and served as captain in the 1965 India Pakistan war.
The Last Sunset: The Rise & Fall of the Lahore Durbar
‘Honour and Fidelity:
India’s Military Contribution to the Great War 1914 to 1918’ was formally launched yesterday. I have dedicated the book to Smt. Sonia Gandhi, our party president. I have served the people under various capacities under her visionary leadership.
I also thank all those who graced the occasion of the book launch at Delhi by their august presence.Amarinder Singh
Amarinder’s book on 1965 Indo-Pak war
Singh has penned the book ‘The Monsoon War: Young Officers Reminisce 1965 India-Pakistan’ along with Lieutenant General Tajindar Shergill, who was the Troop Leader 1 Troop C Squadron Deccan Horse during the war.
“I was in the thick of the action. I was ADC to the GOC-in-C (Western Command) Harbaksh Singh. And most of the action took place in the Western Command only. So, I wanted to present the right perspective of the war. The book tries to put the record straight,” Singh said told PTI about what motivated him to write the book, launched at an event here yesterday.
During the event, the authors shared their experiences about working on the book, the Congress MP serving as ADC to Harbaksh Singh, situation back home after Shergill was put in prison by Pakistan, and putting forth their account of the war.
The attendees mostly comprised of serving and retired defense personnel.
Replying to an often-debated question of who was the actual winner of the war as both the countries claim victory for it, Shergill said it was India given the objectives set out to armed forces by then Central Government and the context in which it was fought.
They also gifted copies of the book, published by Roli Books, to the kins of war heroes, including wife of Veer Abdul Hamid, Rasoolan Biwi, and Harbaksh Singh’s daughter Harmala Gupta.
A documentary on the war was also screened during the event.
In the past, the Congress leader has penned several books, including ‘Honour and Fidelity: India’s Military Contribution to the Great War 1914-1918’ and ‘The Last Sunset: The Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar’.
Shergill, winner of Param Vishisht Seva Medal, has in the past written a book ‘Counter-Insurgency Support to a Host Nation’. —PTI
Captain Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942) is an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress. Head of the royal family of the erstwhile State of Patiala, he was Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007.[1] Presently, he is the sitting President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC),[2][3][4] and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the 16th Lok Sabha, having been chosen for the position after his election as a Member of Parliament from Amritsar, where he defeated the prominent BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
Personal life
Singh is the son of Maharaja Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur of Patiala belonging to the Phulkian Jat dynasty of Sidhu Brar descent.[5] He attended the Welham Boys’ School and Lawrence School Sanawar[6] before going to The Doon School,[7] Dehradun. He has one son, Raninder Singh, and one daughter, Jai Inder Kaur, who is married to a Delhi-based businessman, Gurpal Singh.[8] His wife, Preneet Kaur, served as an MP and was Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2014.
His elder sister Heminder Kaur is married to former foreign minister K. Natwar Singh. 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
He joined the Indian Army in June 1963 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy before resigning in early 1965. He rejoined the Army again as hostilities broke out with Pakistan and served as Captain in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.[9][10]
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 Vidhan Sabha election in which he himself was defeated from his own constituency where he got only 856 votes) after Sonia Gandhi took over the reign of the party. He was defeated by Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra from Patiala Constituency in 1998 by a whooping margin of 33251 votes. He served as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on two occasions from 1999 to 2002 and 2010 to 2013, he also became Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002 and continued until 2007.
In September 2008, a special committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha expelled him on the count of regularities in the transfer of land related to the Amritsar Improvement Trust by the Akali Dal–Bharatiya Janata Party led government.[11] In 2010, the Supreme Court of India held his expulsion unconstitutional on the grounds it was excessive and unconstitutional.[11]
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 1,02,000 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.[12]
President of All India Jat Maha Sabha
Capt Amarinder Singh is president of the All India Jat Maha Sabha. He had been associated with the Jat Maha Sabha for last 30 years as its patron since 1980 when Capt Bhagwan Singh was its president. He demanded reservation for Jats under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.[13]
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 Durbarand 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, and The Monsoon War: Young Officers Reminisce – 1965 India-Pakistan War– which contains his memoirs of the 1965 Indo-Pak war.[14][15]