Surjit Singh Barnala

Surjit Singh Barnala
Surjit Singh Barnala
	Sangrur
Personal details
Born	21 October 1925; Ateli, Punjab Province, British India; (now in Haryana, India)
Died	14 January 2017 (aged 91); Chandigarh, India
Political party	Shiromani Akali Dal
Spouse	Surjit Kaur Barnala
Children	4

Surjit Singh Barnala (21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the 11th

Union Minister on handling various portfolios.^[1]

Early life

Barnala was born in Begpur Village in

Akali Dal

. Though, he first stood for election in 1952 but lost by a meagre 4 votes.

Politics

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

President's Rule

was imposed.

In 1996, Barnala once again came close to becoming prime minister as in the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

^ As administrator of Puducherry

References

^ ^a ^b "Former Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala passes away, aged 91". Times of India. 14 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
^ "Uttaranchal is born;Governor, CM sworn in". The Rediff. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
^ "पद्म भूषण कुंवर सिंह नेगी नहीं रहे" (in Hindi). Dainik Jagran. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
^ Painting for charity
^ T.S. Shankar (15 April 2005). "A brush with the Governor". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 January 2017.^{[dead link]}
^ Goyal, Sushil (21 August 2009). "Barnala family revives SAD (L)". Tribune India. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
^ "Surjit Singh Barnala passes away". The Hindu. 14 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.

Lok Sabha
Preceded by Teja Singh Swatantra	Member of Parliament for Sangrur 1977 – 1980	Succeeded by Gurcharan Singh Nihalsinghwala
Preceded by Gurcharan Singh Dadhahoor	Member of Parliament for Sangrur 1996 – 1999	Succeeded by Simranjit Singh Mann
Political offices
Preceded by Parkash Singh Badal	Minister of Agriculture 1977 – 1979	Succeeded by Rao Birender Singh
Preceded by President's rule	Chief Minister of Punjab (India) 29 September 1985 – 11 June 1987	Succeeded by President's rule
Preceded by P. C. Alexander	Governor of Tamil Nadu 24 May 1990 – 15 February 1991	Succeeded by Bhishma Narain Singh
Preceded by Lt Gen Ranjit Singh Dayal (Retd)	Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands December 1990 – March 1993	Succeeded by Vakkom Purushothaman
Preceded by M. Arunachalam	Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers 1998 – 1999	Succeeded by Suresh Prabhu
Preceded by Raghuvansh Prasad Singh	Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution 1998 – 1999	Succeeded by Shanta Kumar
Preceded by None State Created	Governor of Uttarakhand 9 November 2000 – 7 January 2003	Succeeded by Sudarshan Agarwal
Preceded by C. Rangarajan	Governor of Andhra Pradesh 3 January 2003 – 4 November 2004	Succeeded by Sushilkumar Shinde
Preceded by P. S. Ramamohan Rao	Governor of Tamil Nadu 3 November 2004 – 31 August 2011	Succeeded by Konijeti Rosaiah

External links

[1] As administrator of Puducherry

[Death-2] "Former Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala passes away, aged 91". Times of India. 14 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.

[3] "Uttaranchal is born;Governor, CM sworn in". The Rediff. Retrieved 13 March 2021.

[4] "पद्म भूषण कुंवर सिंह नेगी नहीं रहे" (in Hindi). Dainik Jagran. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2016.

[5] Painting for charity

[paint-6] T.S. Shankar (15 April 2005). "A brush with the Governor". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 January 2017.^{[dead link]}

[7] Goyal, Sushil (21 August 2009). "Barnala family revives SAD (L)". Tribune India. Retrieved 17 January 2017.

[DeathHindu-8] "Surjit Singh Barnala passes away". The Hindu. 14 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.

[1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

v t e Governors of Tamil Nadu
Madras Presidency	Archibald Nye Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Sri Prakasa A. J. John P. V. Rajamannar$ Bishnuram Medhi Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar P. Chandra Reddy $ Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Ujjal Singh
Tamil Nadu	Ujjal Singh Kodardas Kalidas Shah Mohan Lal Sukhadia P. Govindan Nair$ Prabhudas Patwari M. M. Ismail$ Sri Sadiq Ali Sundar Lal Khurana P. C. Alexander Surjit Singh Barnala Bhishma Narain Singh Marri Chenna Reddy Krishan Kant# Fathima Beevi C. Rangarajan# P. S. Ramamohan Rao Surjit Singh Barnala Konijeti Rosaiah C. Vidyasagar Rao# Banwarilal Purohit R. N. Ravi (incumbent)
$ - acting, # - additional charge

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