Harinder Singh Khalsa is an Indian politician. He served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) from

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 ...

during 1996-98 as a member of the

Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are many ...

. In 2014, he joined the

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

and was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a populatio ...

as an MP from

Fatehgarh Sahib Fatehgarh Sahib is a city and a sacred pilgrimage site of Sikhism in the north west Indian state of Punjab. It is the headquarters of Fatehgarh Sahib district, located about north of Sirhind. Fatehgarh Sahib is named after Fateh Singh, the 7-y ...

. He joined

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

in March 2019 but left the party in December 2020 to give his support to

2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest The 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest was a protest against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The acts, often called the Farm Bills, have been described as "anti-farmer laws" by many farmer unions ...

Early life

Harinder Singh Khalsa was born in 1947, in Ludhiana, British India. His father

Gopal Singh Khalsa Gopal Singh Khalsa OBE (born 1903, date of death unknown) was an Indian independence activist and politician. Life Khalsa was born in 1903 into Ramdasia Sikh family at a village around Sidhwan Bet area. He did his schooling from Malwa Khal ...

belongs to Ramdasia Sikh who was an

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are man ...

politician and served as the Chief Parliament Secretary of Punjab assembly in 1937, and was elected to the

Punjab Legislative Assembly The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab in India. The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 members, directl ...

in 1952, serving as the leader of opposition. Harinder Singh obtained an M.A. (English) degree from the Government College, Ludhiana. He married Satwant Kaur on 8 February 1976. The couple has three sons.

Pre-political career

Harinder Singh Khalsa started his career as an English lecturer at the G.G.N. Khalsa College, in Ludhiana. During his academic career (1964-1974), he published two textbooks: ''A Manual of General English'' and ''Social Science''. In May 1974, he joined the Punjab Civil Service. In July 1974, he joined the

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

(IFS) and worked as a

Second Secretary Diplomatic rank is a system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations. A diplomat's rank determines many ceremonial details, such as the order of precedence at official processions, table seatings ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

. Later, he served as a First Secretary in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. In June 1984, while posted in Norway, he resigned in protest against 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 ...

. As the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

government filed some cases against him, he decided to stay in Norway, running a small eating joint and working as a

postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

in Norway. He returned to India in 1990, after being assured that the cases against him would be dropped. During 1990-91, he served as the Chairman of Punjab Human Rights Organization, an

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

that highlighted the excesses committed by the state government during the anti-

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregu ...

operations. During 1991-03, he served as a secretary of the

Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee ( SGPC; "Supreme Gurdwara Management Committee") is an organization in India responsible for the management of Gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and the union ...

(SGPC).

Shiromani Akali Dal

Harinder Singh joined

, and was elected as an MP from Bhatinda in 1996, winning by a margin of 92,229 votes. He was a member of the third National Commission for SC/ST under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Aam Aadmi Party

In 2014, Harinder Singh joined the Aam Aadmi Party, and contested the

2014 Lok Sabha elections General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

from Fatehgarh Sahib. He won by a margin of 54,144 votes. On 29 August 2015, he was suspended from AAP due to anti-party activities. He has denied any involvement in any such activities.

Bharatiya Janata Party

On 28 March 2019 he joined

in the presence of

Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jait ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khalsa, Harinder Singh India MPs 2014–2019 Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Punjab Punjabi people 1947 births Living people Politicians from Ludhiana Indian Sikhs Lok Sabha members from Punjab, India India MPs 1996–1997 People from Bathinda district People from Fatehgarh Sahib district Aam Aadmi Party politicians from Punjab, India Shiromani Akali Dal politicians