Bibi Bimal Kaur (1951–1991) was an Indian politician and the wife of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

Biography

Bibi Bimal Kaur was a nurse at

Lady Hardinge Medical College , mottoeng = Through Adversity to Stars , established = 1916 , founder = Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst , director = , faculty = , students = , undergrad = 240 , postgrad ...

when her husband assassinated Indira Gandhi. Immediately after the assassination she was picked by the Indian security forces, she disappeared for several days leaving her children Amrit, Sarabjeet and Jassi at home. The

Damdami Taksal The Damdamī Ṭaksāl is an orthodox Sikh cultural and educational organization, based in India. Its headquarters are located in the town of Mehta Chowk, approximately 40 km north of the city of Amritsar. It has been described as a seminary ...

paid for her children's education for two years. Bimal Kaur was later arrested and imprisoned for two years for an incendiary speech in a

gurdwara A gurdwara (sometimes written as gurudwara) (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ''guradu'ārā'', meaning "Door to the Guru") is a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs. Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths ...

. On Wednesday, June 4, 1986, when she was 35 years old, she led a rampaging group of Sikh warriors , about 200 in number, armed and attacking the guards at the Golden Temple, to mark the

Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was the codename of a military operation which was carried out by Indian security forces between 1 and 10 June 1984 in order to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of ...

. The crowd cheered for

Khalistan The Khalistan movement is a Sikhs, Sikh Separatism, separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state, called Khālistān ('-stan, Land of the Khalsa'), in the Punjab, Punjab region. The proposed sta ...

, and openly threatened to kill Punjab’s moderate chief minister,

Surjit Singh Barnala Surjit Singh Barnala (21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Punjab state from 1985 to 1987. Following that he served as the governor of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh , l ...

. A guard was killed and seven people were injured. Many journalists, about a dozen, witnessed the guard’s death and remained mute spectators. Later she was elected a member of

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from

Ropar Rupnagar (; formerly known as Ropar is a city and a municipal council in Rupnagar district in the Indian state of Punjab. Rupnagar is a newly created fifth Divisional Headquarters of Punjab comprising Rupnagar, Mohali, and its adjoining distr ...

. Her father-in-law, Beant Singh's father, Sucha Singh Maloa was a member of parliament Sarbjit Singh, her son, was nominated by the SAD (A) headed by

Simranjit Singh Mann Simranjit Singh Mann (born 20 May 1945) is a separatist politician and an MP representing the constituency of Sangrur since 2022. He is the president of the political party Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Mann is a three-time MP; once from Ta ...

to run for parliament from the

Bathinda Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...

and

Mansa Mansa may refer to: Places In India * Mansa, Gujarat, a town in northern Gujarat, Western India; the capital of: ** Mansa, Gujarat Assembly constituency ** Mansa State, a princely state under the Mahi Kantha Agency in India * Mansa district, ...

in 2004. Bimal Kaur died on 2 September 1991. Her death is shrouded in mystery. The first reports that reached the press indicated that Bimal Khalsa consumed cyanide. As she had small children, the suspicion immediately arose that she had been forcibly administered cyanide. Subsequently, this story was "corrected" by the police and it was given out that she had died by electrocution while using a washing machine. A 13-year-old servant normally did this work but this boy was not in the house at the time of her death. Her nearest relative demanded a post-mortem which, under normal circumstances, the police was bound to conduct on request but the police refused this.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khalsa, Bimal Kaur Sikh martyrs Indian women nurses Indian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of India 1991 deaths Accidental deaths by electrocution Punjabi people Accidental deaths in India India MPs 1989–1991 Lok Sabha members from Punjab, India Women in Punjab, India politics 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians People from Rupnagar district 1951 births